Human Nature
by paperheart27
Summary: People make mistakes, that's a part of being Human right? Personally, I think it's how you deal with those mistakes that shapes who you are as a person. So this is the story of my mistakes. Everybody wants to be perfect right? But imperfection is part of Human Nature. Klaine, Sam/OC, Andersiblings mostly about the relationship between Blaine and his sister.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **

**Hey guys, so this story is going to loosely follow the events of season three and four, however, throwing another person into the mix obviously makes it AU and I haven't decided yet how closely I'm going to follow the show or if I'll just branch off on my own. We'll have to see.**

**Only difference I can think of right now is that Sam never moved away. His family is still poor, he and Mercedes had a summer thing that ended but he's still at Mckinley.**

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately don't own any characters or situations that originated on glee. Sadness. But at least I get to play in the playground for a little while. All original characters, (ie: Sage) are my own.**

**-x-**

_September 12, 2011_

_Dear Blaine,_

_Hello favourite brother! So, just in case you haven't noticed the date, our birthday is in, count it, four days. Four days and we'll be . As you can tell I'm extremely excited about this. I mean, 17, big deal. (sarcasm really doesn't translate well in emails, does it?)_

_So apparently we are unable to pick up our phones anymore. I counted just a second ago and realized we haven't spoken for more than 2 minutes in five weeks. FIVE weeks! Partially my fault, seeing as I was in Europe all summer but still, you were canoodling with your man all summer. Our relationship which used to be the envy of many has been debased and is strictly a textual relationship. Shame. _

_So, anyway, given this alarming fact, I was thinking we should actually speak on Friday! Shocking,_

_isn't it? I know you have glee club (by the way, how's the new school?) but maybe after, around six-ish? I wish I could actually see you, but alas, stupid boarding school is five hours away from the public school you have decided to subject yourself to. (I'm kidding. Sort of. Why are you subjecting yourself to public school again? I'm still a little fuzzy on that count) So, tell me what you think of this plan (even though you have no choice) and tell me how the boyfriend is. Maybe someday I'll meet him. Possibly at your wedding, or the birth of your first child. (I know, I'm hilarious, right?)_

_I love you brother!_

_Sage_

_September 13, 2011_

_Dear Sage,_

_Hello favourite sister. First of all you are not nearly as hilarious as you think you are, and I'll also agree that sarcasm just does not translate well in emails. I'm going to have to insist that the textual relationship is not actually my fault, despite my "canoodling" as you so eloquently put it. What have you been up to anyway? How did your internship go? How is it being back at school? I feel like I have no idea what is happening in your life and you know everything about mine. Anyway, I know you're far too busy for me. Remember me in your presidential acceptance speech._

_I was trying to avoid our birthday actually. It's weird, I was at Dalton for three years. I'm not used to not seeing Wes and Dave and the rest of the guys everyday. I was someone at Dalton and here I'm just starting all over again. Wes says hi, by the way, all the way from Oberlin. He talks about you a little too often for me not to want to kill him slightly. (Is it possible to kill someone slightly?) It isn't that I regret transferring to Mckinley. I don't at all. The New Directions are great, they just don't really know me. They know me as Kurt's boyfriend, not me as me. And none of them except Kurt knows that its our birthday. You'll love Kurt. I really love him, Sage. It's a little scary but he's kind of the greatest person I've ever met. Sometimes I really don't know how I got so lucky (I know you're fake gagging right now but you secretly think we're adorable.) _

_What was I talking about? Oh yeah, our birthday._

_Anyway, I think the phone call is a great idea that has to happen, however, I suggest kicking it up a notch. Can I at last use you missing me as a sympathy vote to get you to download skype? Come on, you can see your favourite brother's face! I also dyed my hair pink. _

_Love you most, _

_Blaine_

_September 14, 2011_

_Dear Blaine,_

_Pink! Ha! If you ever gave up your hair gel I think the world would explode, let alone dyed it. Pink! I'm still laughing at that one. And don't kill Wes, he's harmless. (I'm not entirely sure how you would go about killing him slightly anyway.)_

_Ok, I'm going to ask this again because it is my job as your sister so don't kill me. Are you sure transferring was a good idea? I know you missed Kurt . I know you love Kurt. But does that really mean you have to give up your entire life for him? You're only 17, Blaine, you have your whole life to spend with Kurt, or with someone, who knows? I just want to make sure that this decision was about what you want and about what's good for you. Because as great as you think Kurt is, you are more important to me. Anyway, it's your choice and you've made it, I just hope you thought it through. (If I was less of an amazing sister I would now bring up the fact that you don't always think things through... I have several examples. I'm not going to bring that up though because I am, in fact, an amazing sister.) I promise this whole spiel comes from a place of love and concern and even more love. _

_Anyway, I think your face to face argument was just too compelling and I have to download skype. ugh, I hate technology. You'll have to talk me through it over the phone. _

_Also, I resent you suggesting that I don't call you. I'll have you know I called you three times yesterday and you didn't pick up the phone._

_Can I just go on the record and say this distance thing sucks._

_Yeah right you love me most,_

_Sage_

_September 15, 2011_

_Dear Sage_

_Hello again, favourite sister. _

_I agree the distance sucks. I think I miss you more than I actually thought was possible. After three years, you'd think we'd be used to it. _

_I'm excited to actually see your face tomorrow though. By the way, you only hate technology because you have an irrational fear of your laptop blowing up, which, by the way, won't happen. You know that Gigi is more technologically savvy then you are right? _

_She asked about you last night. Says she sends her love. She's leaving for Paris again tonight. Apparently the company will completely self-destruct if she isn't there to oversee things. _

_It's actually kind of cool, I pretty much live alone 95% of the time. A little lonely maybe, but better than the alternative of living with Dad. That would be very very bad. _

_And here I go from touching on one uncomfortable subject (dad) to another. I know you care, Sage. But I'm sure about this. I didn't leave Dalton because Kurt wanted me to, I left because I wanted to. When all that stuff happened with the Sadie Hawkins dance and then the hospital and everything, I kind of left Burnham with my tail between my legs. I can't go back to Burnham, maybe I'm a coward, but I can't. Coming to Mckinley and facing Kurt's tormenters though, it sort of feels like I'm facing my own. Yeah, it'll definitely be harder than staying at Dalton, but I feel like I owe it to kids who are going through what I went through to try and make this school in the middle of Ohio a better place. Does that make any sense? _

_Kurt said the same thing as you, actually. He was all worried about resentment building between us if I transferred to Mckinley because of him. It was pretty adorable, actually. I'll say it again, to you and to him. I'm happy with my choice. I've just got to get used to it here. Now I'm changing the subject._

_You've been studiously ignoring any questions I ask about your life, by the way, don't think I haven't noticed. Is everything ok? I'm just saying, you can always talk to me Sage. _

_Anyway, happy almost birthday. I'll talk to you tomorrow._

_You know I do love you the most,_

_Blaine._

I clicked the x on the corner of the email listlessly, before closing my computer screen. The last few sentences of Blaine's email were annoyingly perceptive as usual. I had been more than a little tight lipped about my life for the past few months because it really hadn't been all that great. I sighed and dropped back against the pillows on my bed. Between virtual invisibility and the attention I was now receiving I would happily go back to being the overachieving nerd I had been back in May.

The door to my room clicked open as my roommate Carys walked in, her blond hair rippling down her back, her skirt flouncing like the rich schoolgirl barbie she was. She rolled her eyes dramatically when she saw me lying on my bed.

"Don't worry." she said after a long silence, moving towards her own bed across the room and dropping her school blazer on it, "I'm not staying. You can hide from people all you want without me interrupting you." I rolled my eyes and stared at the ceiling as she changed from her uniform into a dress that looked as if it had been made from a length of high-lighter pink plastic. "You know, with the amount of attention you've been getting, you'd think you would be out whoring yourself out to the next underclassmen you meet." Her voice reminded me of sour candy, the kind that left a bad taste in your mouth. "...but instead you lie in here every night like a love-sick puppy. You're more pathetic than I thought." I didn't bother to respond or to move my gaze from the ceiling as she grabbed her purse and walked out, slamming the door as she did. I looked up as she popped her head back in with a malicious glint in her eye as she gazed at me smugly. "Someone wrote a note on the door for you." She slammed the door again and I could hear her and her friends laughing all the way down the hall.

This was pretty much horrible. Carys had always been awful, but this was everyone, or almost everyone being completely awful, horrible excuses for human beings. I had never missed Blaine more than I did right now.

The stupidity of my decisions over the entire second half of last year sort of astounded me. I had seen the door when I came in from class. "slut". I had been at the top. Sure, I wasn't into the partying and drug abuse that ran surprisingly rampant at Burnham but I was head of academics, I had sort of friends, and one humiliating experience later, I was on my own.

The plan that had been circulating in my mind for the past week was suddenly seeming more and more like a viable option.

- x -

Yes. I knew that I was glaring at a building. Yes, I also knew that the building was made of concrete and glass and metal and therefore did not care that I was glaring at it. But I was still glaring at it. I had never wanted a building to suffer as much as I wanted Mckinley high school to suffer. This stupid stupid high school might very well keep me out of Yale. How, you ask? Well, staying at Burnham Prep would virtually guarantee me at least some serious consideration from the head haunchos behind those ivy covered walls. Yet here I was, seriously considering letting all of that fall by the wayside to suffer the indignity of public school. In Lima, for Christs sake! If I transferred to Mckinley, I could very well be stuck in Ohio for the rest of my life which was a frankly terrifying thought.

"Stupid Brother" I muttered to myself, crossing my arms sullenly across my chest. If my stupid, stupid brother hadn't decided to move to this hell hole of a school that happened to be co-ed, I would never have been faced with this unanswerable conundrum. While Blaine was far from being the only reason I was considering a transfer, I felt far more comfortable blaming him for the time being, so I was going to stick with that. I grumbled to myself darkly and pushed myself off the hood of my car, trudging across the pot hole ridden parking lot.

There was something institutional about this place, I decided as the huge glass doors clicked behind me with what seemed like the clang of a jail cell.

Ok. So I was being a little dramatic.

The place was a deserted maze of sterile halls that smelled like bleach and generic floor cleaner. Oh how I suddenly missed Dalton with its marble floors, mahogany staircases and floor plan that I actually knew.

"Oh, great idea, Sage, lets surprise him." I muttered to myself as my heels clicked on the linoleum floor. "Never mind that fact that you've never been here before and have no idea how to find him."

This was officially a stupid and badly thought out plan. Every single hallway in this place was identical. Literally identical. I was going to be stuck in here forever, doomed to wander around the wasteland of public high school for all eternity.

Ok, dramatic again.

"If I was a choir room, where would I be?" I wondered out loud as I wandered aimlessly past open doors and silent classrooms. You would think there would be someone around here somewhere, didn't public schools have after school clubs or something? There had to be someone around here that would be able to give me directions. I turned a corner and found myself slammed painfully against a metal locker, my eyes swimming from the unexpected impact.

"Oh my God." A guy said above where I was hunched over. "I am so sorry." well, at least my wish had been answered, here was someone who could give me answers. I should probably look up in case there was internal bleeding or something and I needed to press charges against my new tour guide. "Are you ok?" he asked anxiously.

I managed to gather myself enough to look up at my attacker. And keep looking up. Good lord, this guy had to be 6' 3"? 6'4", easy. And he was cute. Very cute. I cursed myself silently. Trust me to be attracted to the guy that had physically assaulted me, this spoke volumes for the future use of my self defence classes. My stomach was providing me with extremely uncomfortable fluttering feelings, as if a hundred moths were banging against my innards, trying to force their way out.

I drew in a sharp breath at the pain in my side and pressed two fingers against my ribs experimentally. Bruised but definitely not cracked. "I'm alright, just a little winded." I said, pressing a hand to my sternum and trying to catch my breath. His hand closed around my elbow and helped pull me upright.

"Are you sure?" he asked anxiously as I straightened my skirt. His ear to ear smile and squeaky clean blond Beiber look had boyscout written all over it.

"I'm sure." I laughed at the supremely dramatic look on his face and dusted my jacket off.

"I'm Sam." he supplied, releasing my elbow and offering a hand. Hand shaking? Wow, he really was a boyscout.

"Sage." I said shaking his hand. He grinned widely at me. I gazed at him wonderingly as he stared down at me. It took a second of wondering whether or not I had something stuck in my teeth for me to realise that this was the way normal, polite people acted.

"Can I take you to the nurse?" he asked, as I grinned in spite of myself. He was just so Ohio, so friendly to a complete stranger and genuinely concerned for my well being. Exactly what I pictured the small town Ohio kid to be.

"No thanks." I laughed. This complete stranger who had just rammed me into a wall of lockers had actually managed to turn my snobby, depressing mood sunny within two minutes of talking to him. That was pretty impressive. "You could show me where the choir room is, though." I hadn't, up until that moment thought his smile could possibly get wider, but there it went.

"I just happen to be heading that way little lady." he said, drawling the words. I paused and raised my eyebrows questioningly at the sudden cowboy accent.

"Rhett Butler?"

"John Wayne" he responded. This kid was weird. But a nice weird.

"okay then." I responded, laughing again as he motioned for me to follow him down the hall.

"So... are you transferring here?" he asked as I tried not to focus on the warmth of his hand on my elbow, guiding me through the maze of hallways. It was possible that I imagined the little note of hope in his voice but I was going to pretend that it was there simply because it was fun pretending. I looked down at the linoleum, feeling a little flustered.

"I'm thinking about it." I said, saying the words out loud for the first time. It didn't actually seem that scary anymore. So I was going to transfer schools, so what?

Ok, maybe still a little scary.

"Cool." Sam smiled again. I hadn't actually ever seen anyone smile quite as much as he did. He stopped suddenly and gestured with a flourish at the door to the choir room, which, by the way, I would never have found on my own. "Shall I escort you in little lady?" he asked, John Wayne again.

I paused, a plan suddenly forming in my head. "you go ahead, I have to make a phone call." He smiled again.

"I'll see you in there."

I took a deep breath, leaning against the wall so I could see into the room and dialled the familiar number. I rejoiced silently as I heard the chipper ring tone jingling from the choir room. I could see him now, sitting in the back row, pulling his phone out of his pocket. This was such an awesome plan.

"Happy Birthday favourite sister." he said quietly, smiling as he answered the phone.

"Happy Birthday favourite brother." I responded, grinning widely at the ingenious nature of my plan. He turned away from the doorway , pressing one hand to his free ear, ostensibly to hear me better. "I thought we were going to talk later?" he asked. I couldn't hold still, I was too excited at how awesome this plan was. I grinned and began jumping lightly up and down in excitement. He was going to be so surprised when I just walked in there! Did I mention that this plan was awesome? I grinned gleefully, trying to keep myself from drawing too much attention before the right moment.

"We are." I said jubilantly."I just have a surprise for you."

"A surprise for me?" he laughed as I hung up the phone and walked through the door of the choir room.

Sam grinned again and raised an arm in greeting. Blaine hadn't noticed my entrance yet, still facing towards the wall.

"Sage?" I could hear him saying quietly into his phone. "Sage, are you still there?"

I grinned. "I'm here." I said loudly. His head shot around as his phone clattered to the floor.

I raised an eyebrow and laughed at his shocked face. "That was dramatic." I informed him as he stared open mouthed at me. He continued to stare at me as if I were a mirage or something instead of his real, actual sister standing there, waiting for him to do something.

"Geeze!" I exclaimed rolling my eyes at Blaine. "I drive five hours on my birthday just to see you and I don't even get a hello?"

By now, every single head was turned towards us. "It's Lord Tubbington's unbirthday" A blond girl dressed in a red and white cheerleading uniform said into the silence of the room. "It's my unbirthday too." she continued her eyes widening in awe as if she had just found the answer to the meaning of life.

"Oh my god!" Blaine finally managed to say, ignoring the cheerleader as most of the room appeared to be doing. He got up off his chair and launched himself at me, scooping me into his typical bear hug prompting me to return his hug automatically, falling into a pattern we had probably developed in utero. "What are you doing here?"he asked, laughing as he broke out of the hug, holding my shoulders at arms length.

"Oh you know," I said nonchalantly, "I was in the neighbourhood. Plus I wanted to see my favourite brother on my birthday.

"It's my birthday." he insisted, resurrecting an old joke. He laughed out loud again and bounced up and down on the spot.

"Am I the only one who has no clue what is going on with the hobbit right now?" the brunette cheerleader asked in a lazily sarcastic voice. Blaine rolled his eyes for my benefit as I raised my eyebrows at the hobbit comment. Apparently that was an insult that was going to follow him around for his entire life.

"It's your unbirthday too Santana." the blond beside her stated as the brunette looked away from us and smiled softly at her companion.

"Santana, everyone, this is my sister Sage." Blaine said, ignoring the blonde again as the majority of the room gazed at us in interest. I compulsively straightened his crooked bow tie as he grinned at me. I'd missed Blaine smiles. I impulsively squealed and hugged him again.

"Wait, Blaine's a twin? How do none of us know this?" an Asian girl with long black hair asked

"I knew." My eyes flicked up to the corner where Blaine had been sitting to examine the tall thin youth he had been sitting next to. His clothes screamed designers names at me, Marc Jacobs, Chanel I could even see an hermes scarf tied around his neck. I glanced at Blaine who was smiling his dopiest smile at the boy in the corner. That had to be Kurt then, I decided in interest as I took in his posture, the shoes peaking out from underneath well tailored Armani and last of all the look of infatuation he was sending my brother's way. This would definitely require further research.

"Twins are aliens." the same blond cheerleader mumbled as Santana patted her leg comfortingly. There was a beat as everyone in the room turned to look incredulously at her. "What? Lord Tubbington is a twin and I think he's been scanning my brain in my sleep."No one seemed to have any idea how to respond to that. What kind of alternate universe had I stepped into?

"Ok guys!" a middle aged guy in a vest came in clapping his hands. He stopped and looked questioningly at Blaine as we stood awkwardly in the middle of the choir room. A picture clicked in my head from Blaine's descriptions. Mr. Shuester, he who wears many vests.

"Um, Mr. Shue, this is my sister Sage." Blaine said, still doing that bouncing thing he does when he's excited. "and I still can't believe she's here" he grinned widely. I grinned back at him, realizing that he was pretty much doing exactly what I had been doing just before I came into the room.

" Well it's nice to meet you, Sage. You're welcome to join us." Blaine had already taken this for granted and was dragging me over to his seat where Kurt was gazing at me in a vaguely interested way.

It took a minute for everyone to look away from us and for Mr. Shuester to get everyone's attention back, but eventually they were all listening to his speech about revisiting duets, every once in a while somebody inserting a pithy comment, Blaine quietly informing me of who they all were. I couldn't believe that I had actually done it. I had actually got in my car with minimal supplies and no plan and driven out of Pittsburgh to the middle of nowhere Ohio. It was kind of exciting, being adventurous, veering away from the plan.

"I personally think that duets are a staple in the repertoire of any good performer." I raised an eyebrow at the grating, peppy tone of the brunette's voice as I turned my attention back to Blaine's new glee club.

"Rachel." Blaine mumbled into my ear. Ah, well that explained it. Although it made Blaine's 'experimentation' phase all the more confusing. This girl was actually wearing a sweater with some species of woodland creature printed on it.

"It's a great opportunity to have someone support my talent." she continued, ignoring about 95% of the glee club as they all made scoffing noises or rolled their eyes.

"Actually, Rachel, duets are more about supporting two different talents." Mr. Shue said pointedly. "Anyone feel like taking a spin?" He looked expectantly at the group, most of whom were suddenly looking extremely reticent. Blaine shifted in his seat beside me as a horrible suspicion started to dawn on me. I knew Blaine well enough to suspect what was about to come out of his mouth and it was not good for me.

"Uh, Mr. Shue." he said. Oh. God. No. Please have him be talking about Kurt. Please, Please, Please.

Kurt glanced at him questioningly, not helping my hopes.

"Do you and Kurt have something in your wheelhouse?" Shue asked, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning against the piano. Blaine cleared his throat and looked at me expectantly, my musing broken by the look in his eye. I knew that look, that was a dangerous look. I shook my head at him.

"No way." I said out loud as he threw a puppy dog look at me which was extremely unfair. He knew I was helpless against the puppy dog eyes. Blaine was practically an overgrown puppy in his everyday life but when he threw those eyes at me, I was lost. Some people were born to lead by force, others to lead by love. Blaine was the latter, and he knew it. One look with those sad eyes and he knew I would give in. He may look innocent and cheery on the outside but he is a master manipulator.

"I was hoping," he said, ignoring me, "that you would be all right with Sage and I showing you something we've been working on for about ten years."

"I want to hear it." Kurt piped up. I slumped down in the plastic seat. Number one, Kurt wasn't gaining any brownie points here. Number 2, I wasn't singing. I absolutely was not indulging Blaien and singing this stupid song in front of a bunch of people I had never met.

"Sounds good Blaine." Mr. Shue was quickly added to the growing hit list in my head.

I told you I was dramatic.

"I want to hear Blaine and girl Blaine" Brittany said, looking vaguely at the wall at the other end of the room.

Blaine grinned annoyingly at me.

"Why did I think hanging out with you was a good idea?" I joked, dramatically sighing at my insistent brother. He knew that he had me cornered. I was still too happy to see him to be able to say no to him.

"Because you love me." he informed me matter of factly, grabbing my arm and bodily dragging me to the centre of the room. "It's just like riding a bike." he assured me, quietly informing the pianist what we would be singing.

I winced as the first few familiar chords of the most annoying song in the world brought me right back to where we had left this song five years ago. I had only ever agreed to sing this song to appease Blaine. It seemed history was repeating itself.

"Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you."

I hadn't sung in so long that I sort of felt like I was croaking. Surely my frog voice was the worst type of enticement possible to demonstrate a duet for the rest of the club. Everything had been way too busy for me to do any singing since Blaine had transferred three years ago and other than silly thigns like Christmas carols I really hadn't done any performing in far too long.

"No you Can't"

"Yes I can"

"No you can't"

"Yes I can"

"No you can't"

"Yes I can, Yes I can"

The way I was automatically stepping back into the choreography we had developed together at seven years old surprised me. This was actually kind of fun,embarrassing as it may be to sing in front of a bunch of performers I had never met. Blaine stepped forward, dancing around energetically and bouncing all over the room like the energizer bunny he was. There was a reason my Aunt had nicknamed him 'sparkplug' when we were little.

"I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge"

"I can get a sparrow with a bow and arrow"

I rolled my eyes as he dragged people up to the middle of the floor and started dancing with them. He grinned widely over at me as he managed to coax Kurt into following him to the middle of the room, spinning him around deftly. He was so happy here I realized as he guffawed loudly in the middle of the instrumental break. He'd always been a proathiding his emotions and pretendingto be cheerful but this was a new Blaine that I was watching dance around with his boyfriend. He wasn't pretending here, this didn't feel like the kind of debonair mask he had been wearing for the past few years. I was starting to feel a lot less worried about Blaine being here. Come to think of it, I was starting to feel a lot less worried about being here myself.

"I can live on bread and cheese"

"And only on that?"

"Yes"

"So can a rat"

In spite of myself I was having fun. Coming here was a great idea, I suddenly decided. Blaine grinned at me as he let go of Kurt and rushed to finish off our choreography, leaning back to back against me. I had never realized just how cheesy this choreography was, come to think of it.

"Anything you can sing I can sing sweeter"

"I can sing anything sweeter than you"

"No, you can't, can't, can't"

"Yes, I can, can, can, can"

"Yes I can!"

Blaine and I spontaneously burst out laughing halfway through the last note. Sure, we ruined the money moment but this whole situation was completely, ridiculously, hilarious. I never thought that I would be singing Annie get your gun with my dweeb of a brother in front of a room full of strangers. There was something about it though that was completely, totally awesome. The rest of the glee club were laughing right along with us. I actually caught myself feeling included. That was a weird feeling. Burnham didn't do inclusion and acceptance, they did competition. Sure, Blaine's friends had learned my name all of half an hour ago, but all they needed was a song and I was one of them. All of a sudden transferring wasn't that scary.

"That was great, guys!" Mr. Shue exclaimed clapping his hands enthusiastically and laughing out loud. "That kind of support is exactly what a duet should be!"

Blaine and I were still laughing, a little hysterically, both of us leaning on each other as we tried to catch our breath.

"Everybody start thinking about your duets for the rest of this week. Sage," he said, smiling warmly at me and touching my arm, "we're really glad to have you."

I paused, a little bit stunned as I stood in the middle of the choir room. Blaine was jumping up and down and laughing with his friends and I couldn't do anything but stand there.

Sam sidled over to me, grinning widely. I'd known him for an hour and he had already smiled more than 80% of the people I had ever met. I couldn't help but smile back shyly at him. Those darn butterflies were back again.

"So..." he started, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Anderson, huh?" he flipped his hair back in a move that was a bit too much like Justin Beiber, making it feel really weird to find him completely adorable. I shrugged, my smile widening a bit. It was possible I was flirting. Maybe. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Sage Anderson."

I laughed in spite of myself, the butterflies making me feel a little giddy. "Nice to meet you too, Sam." I said, biting my lip as he waved and walked towards the door. He turned around suddenly, mouthing 'Happy Birthday', before he walked out of the room.

Blaine cleared his throat from beside me, where he had been obnoxiously hovering since he had seen Sam walk up. He raised an eyebrow suggestively as I shoved his annoying self towards the door. Completely obnoxious.

I smiled as I followed him out of the room. Transferring was probably the best idea I had ever come up with.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello again, lovely readers. It's been a while since I've updated (sorry!) but this chapter is fairly long, so hopefully that will make up for it. I love to read your thoughts or impressions of the story, the characters, whatever, so don't be shy, review! I love them. Once again, I have to thank my lovely sister and beta Petrapan, without whom I would have a jumbled incoherent mess to post. This chapter picks up about half an hour after the last one ended.**

**Xoxo - Belle**

**Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own the world of glee or any of the characters that reside within it, they are all the property of fox.**

"Blaine seriously, we can't have the Birthday Reunion Disney Extravaganza without copious amounts of junk food!" I insisted, as the two of us wandered around Lima's local supermarket.

"I agree." he said, wheeling the cart down the frozen food aisle and grinning as I bounced ahead towards the ice cream freezer. "I just don't understand the need for four different flavours of ice cream."

He was so close-minded sometimes. I bounced back over to him and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him slightly.

"There is no understanding, Blaine, there is no logic. Just give in to it." He rolled his eyes and let out a short laugh as he took the tub of Chunky-Munky from my hands and dropped it into the cart.

"Yes, oh Zen master." he said sarcastically.

The BDE (Birthday Disney Extravaganza) marathon was a tradition of ours. When we were kids, our mother would always wake us up early on our birthday. Instead of getting dressed for the day, she would wear a set of woolly pyjamas and make chocolate chip pancakes, usually starting a Flour fight, making a huge mess in our sparse and streamlined kitchen. We'd then spend the whole day watching Disney movies in the dark, eating junk food and ice cream for dinner. Mom used to tell us we were so lucky to have each other, that no matter what, we always each other to love and depend on. That was what made us special.

Blaine watched me sceptically as I bounced back along the aisle. Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate ice cream, now that sounded amazing. I threw it into the cart and he lifted it up to see the flavour and winced when he read the title, pretending to gag as I smacked his arm. "That looks and sounds disgusting." he informed me matter-of-factly before dropping the five gallon tub of the frankly amazing sounding ice cream back into the cart.

"It sounds wonderful." I countered, moving off in search of another flavour.

"Fine, but we are also getting a decent flavour." he grumbled, pulling out a tub of French vanilla from the freezer and putting it on top of the Chunky-Munky. I rolled my eyes. He was a 75 year old man at heart, bowties, cardigans, and French vanilla ice-cream all proving my point.

"Alright old man, you can have your traditional, boring flavour." I teased, bouncing out of the reach of his playful shove. "I'll also make sure you don't stay up past your bedtime." He made a face at me, looking so much like he did at six years old that I had to laugh. I was so happy to be here. I felt like the 300 pound man that had been sitting on my chest had finally found a better hobby than suffocating me to death. Burnham didn't exist, I was with Blaine, and I was practically euphoric. "If you're good maybe we can play a couple games of shuffleboard." I goaded as he groaned and threw his hands in the air.

"You are ridiculous" he told me, laughing and following me towards the Cashes. "Anyway," he said, sending a warning glance in my direction. "We have cookie dough, chips, popcorn, Candy corn, Oreos and five different flavours of ice cream, do you think that will be enough for the two of us?" his voice was definitely a little sarcastic and he earned an odd look from a soccer mom standing in the next line. I pretended to ponder over it as Blaine started putting our junk food on the conveyer belt of the cash register.

"It'll do." I said finally, the soccer mom gazing over in disbelief at us and looking slightly sick to her stomach. Blaine glanced at me as he handed over his credit card, amusement twinkling in his eye. I could feel a laugh bubble up in my throat as we both cracked up at the same time, earning a huff from the soccer mom and a grin from the cashier.

"Junkie." he muttered, shaking his head at me and grabbing half of the bags.

We left the supermarket and walked towards my BMW, bags of junk food in hand, chatting about what movies we were going to watch. "Please, God, no!" I moaned, the plastic bag in my hand crinkling as I hit my forehead, "you are not going to make me watch Mulan again!" he had made me watch that damn movie at least twenty times a week when we were kids. If I ever heard "I'll make a man out of you" again, I was going to throw something at the television; or Blaine, whichever.

"It's the best Disney movie ever made!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, grinning infectiously as I unlocked the doors of my car and climbed in. I rolled my eyes and dumped the junk food in the back seat, pulling my seat belt across my chest.

"Uh-huh." I said sceptically, tossing my purse into the back seat with the junk food. Blaine had an unreasonable love of Disney movies. I mean, I love Disney, but honestly, with Blaine it was a little bit of an obsession, down to the point where he would randomly quote Mufasa in regular conversation. He once argued that "the Circle of Life" was a philosophical treatise on the transience of life. I hate that he got an A on that paper. I wondered if Kurt had seen this particular quirk yet. Huh, I actually had no idea what Kurt knew about my brother. All my knowledge about Kurt was from the lovesick ramblings of a teenager and who knew how well Blaine's assessment was. He was, after all, a little biased. Blaine looked at me expectantly as I sat without starting the car. "I think you should invite Kurt." I blurted. If I was going to transfer, I might as well get to know the boy my brother was obsessed with, had to make sure he was worthy and all that. Blaine started in surprise and looked over at me questioningly.

"Are you sure?" he asked slowly, pulling his own seat belt across his chest and clicking it in place. "It's our birthday; I'm cool with us just hanging out with each other." I shook my head. I could tell that some part of him liked the idea. He wasn't lying about wanting it to be the two of us, but he really wanted to invite Kurt. He really loved Kurt. He'd told me this already a couple of months ago but he _really_ loved Kurt. I could remember almost dropping the phone in shock when he'd said it. Blaine had never been one to throw the word around. Sure, everything he had talked about for the past 9 months had been about Kurt, even when it was obvious to me that he was in a stupid amount of denial. But it was that moment in my car that I realized; he _really_ loved Kurt. It made me a little sad, actually, as ridiculous as that was.

"I'm sure!" I insisted, pushing my somewhat selfish sadness to some ill used corner of my mind as a wide smile spread across his face at the suggestion. It was about time I got to know this other part of Blaine's life. "He's your boyfriend, Blaine; I want to know him!" He smiled at me and gave me a hug, made somewhat awkward by the fact that we were both wearing seat belts.

"You'll love him." He told me, settling back into his seat with a satisfied expression on his face. I nodded in agreement and put my keys in the ignition.

"Wait." he said suddenly, his hand closing on mine. I paused, waiting expectantly as the keys dangled from the ignition. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked, staring through the windshield and running his hands through his helmet of hair gel. I looked up sharply at the tone of his voice. It had completely changed from ecstatic to serious in a second. No eye contact; my, this was serious.

"Ok..." I said slowly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Are you staying here?" he asked bluntly, turning to face me. I could feel my breath hitch in my throat. Ah. So that's what was bugging him. Being without Blaine was like being without one of my limbs. There was also nothing for me at Burnham anymore, only mistakes. Maybe I was running away and being a coward, but so be it. I needed Blaine, even though I would never admit it out loud. I needed to be around him. I was being weak, but as long as I was fully acknowledging the weakness that counted for something right?

He was waiting for me to answer him, his face searching mine as if he was trying to discern the answer before I said it. I nodded slowly. "You're transferring to Mckinley?" he clarified, the smile slowly returning to his face. I nodded again and couldn't help but smile as he threw his arms around me again. My brother and I sat there, our arms around each other as the ice cream in the back seat melted and for once I couldn't have cared less about the leather seats. I had Blaine back and everything would be better now. "I'm really happy, Sage." he said quietly before releasing me. He grinned a little, and turned back towards the windshield as I cleared my throat.

"Good because so am I." I said, half to myself. My eyes were not tearing up because of this gooey lovey dovey moment, it was the sun I swear! Blaine was the sappy type! I glanced him quickly and noticed a small smile on his face. "Now call that boyfriend of yours." I instructed him, smiling to myself and gently nudging his arm. The smile turned into a grin as he happily pulled his phone out of his pocket while I started the car and backed out of the parking spot slowly.

The ride to my grandmother's house was punctuated by Blaine's conversation with Kurt. I half listened as they chatted about glee club and NYADA, Blaine spending at least ten minutes going on and on about college football. It was sweet really; they were in that stage where everything was interesting, even when it wasn't. That time when every touch is amazing and every joke hilarious. That feeling that almost made anything else that happened worth it. My smile slipped a bit. Blaine was still chatting away as I pulled into the driveway Blaine directed me to. A white monolith loomed above me as I opened my car door and climbed out. It was like a museum, I thought as I stared at it. Trust my grandmother to buy the largest house in Lima just so that Blaine could go to Mckinley. Blaine moved past me with the bags of food in hand, his phone pressed into his shoulder, still chatting away about something or other. He struggled to get the key in the lock while juggling all the bags before handing it to me with a pleading look.

"You shouldn't have taken all the bags, genius." I informed him as I turned the key in the lock and handed the ring back to him.

'Thanks' he mouthed walking into the entrance hall and disappearing into the bowels of the house, presumably moving towards the kitchen.

"You're being stupid, Sage." I muttered to myself as I paused on the threshold. Stupid emotions, being able to call this place home was the most complicated kind of happiness I had ever experienced. Even the word was enough to throw my admittedly fragile emotional state into a wild tailspin. Home.

"Hey! So, good news!" Blaine exclaimed, popping out of the kitchen and walking down the hallway. I stepped into the house quickly and closed the front door behind me, dropping my jacket on the entryway table. "I saved the ice cream!" Something about his face and the whole situation just made me burst out laughing.

-x-

Blaine was being wholly unhelpful, I decided as I pulled my favourite pair of jeans out of my suitcase. He was staring at the ceiling as he lay across the bed in the room I had appropriated from one of the many spare rooms. "I like that shirt." he told me sitting up as I pulled a button down top that I hadn't worn in a year and a half out of the suitcase. It looked like something our Grandmother would wear. I made a face at the shirt, making Blaine laugh and drop back onto my bed.

"You have terrible taste." I informed him, folding the shirt and stuffing it in the back of one of the drawers.

"Hey, bow ties are cool." he insisted, tossing a throw pillow in my direction. It landed on the floor, so much for his legendary pitching arm. "Also, if this is going to be your room it needs serious help." He was right there. Blaine's was probably one of the only rooms in the whole house that didn't look as if it had a stick shoved up its rear end.

"You don't like chintz?" I asked sarcastically, examining the ruffled flower pillow that had fallen onto the floor near my feet. He snorted and didn't say anything as I continued to pull clothes from my suitcase. I wrinkled my nose as I stared into the drawers of the big mahogany dresser. This was a crazy assortment of clothes, I noted, as I surveyed my school uniform, a beat up Dalton sweatshirt I had stolen from Wes and my ninth grade freshman homecoming dress. Apparently my crazy hurried packing had not been as thorough as I thought it had, I had grabbed 7 bras and 1 pair of pants. I was going to have to drive back up to Burnham pronto. What a joyful prospect. "Yeah, I definitely have to go shopping soon" I muttered, mostly to myself as I caught a glance at myself in the wonky 100 year old mirror that hung above the dresser. Very soon. The doorbell rang, clanging hollowly through the house like a gong. Of course, in a house my grandmother bought, even the doorbell would be ostentatious. Blaine shot up from where he had been lying on my bed at the sound of the doorbell, sort of reminding me of a jack in the box. Apparently two hours apart was enough to elicit a romance movie response. I rolled my eyes at him and grinned at his obvious excitement. He glanced quickly over at where I was folding my clothes and started bouncing impatiently on the bed. "Go ahead!" I exclaimed, pulling the last couple of tank tops out of the suitcase "I'll just finish up and come downstairs in a minute, let you get the grossness out of the way." He tried to glare at that comment as he quickly stood but failed miserably. Geez, you'd think they were newlyweds or something.

"Ha ha." he said sarcastically, planting a kiss on the top of my head and bounding out of the room.

"Freak." I muttered to myself, shaking my head and zipping the now empty suitcase closed.

"I heard that!" he shouted from the stairs. I laughed to myself and dragged the suitcase over to the closet, stowing it behind the double doors until I had a chance to trudge up to the attic. I turned around to survey the room. It was beautiful, architecturally at least, although it did have a serious case of the grandma's. The windows were huge and arched at the top with built in bookcases on either side. The bookcases were why I had picked this room. My mother's music room had had built in bookcases. These ones were a little too full of knick knacks but I had a ton of books at Burnham that could live there nicely. A high pitched squeal floated up the stairs, interrupting my redecorating plans. Hang on, that high pitched drone sounded familiar.

"She insisted." Kurt was informing my brother as I walked down the stairs. Oh God, I was right. It was her. Rachel. I didn't usually take such an immediate dislike to anyone but she was just so annoying.

"I couldn't help myself, we'll have a sing along!" she exclaimed loudly. Finn was standing awkwardly near the front door, looking for all the world like he would rather be anywhere else while Kurt and Blaine were talking quietly by the bottom of the stairs. As I came down, they turned towards me, Kurt stepping away from my brother as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Sorry about her, she's a little bit insane." He smiled slightly as Blaine came up behind him and entwined their fingers.

"This is so great!" he exclaimed, bouncing on the spot. "My two favourite people are going to be friends." I rolled my eyes at his little boy excitement as Kurt grinned over at him.

"Well when I saw that Prada skirt, I knew we had to be friends." Kurt said as Rachel obnoxiously inserted herself between us.

"Come on, Disney princess songs are just waiting for us Sage!" she exclaimed before pulling her reluctant boyfriend into the media room where Blaine had started setting out our junk food plunders before I'd pulled him upstairs to help me unpack. I grimaced in Blaine's direction as he shrugged apologetically. They may have had a Will and Grace bonding thing happening but that didn't mean that I was going to voluntarily invite crazy Broadway girl into my birthday party. Kurt followed Rachel in, discussing the merits of Jasmine and Belle as Finn slumped onto the sofa. Great, so the night I had been trying to get to know my brothers boyfriend now included a mopey teenage boy who obviously had a problem with Blaine and was therefore immediately on my dislike list and a mental patient. I grumbled quietly to myself, crossing my arms across my chest as Rachel obnoxiously bounced on the sofa and helped herself to a piece of celery that Blaine had put out in an attempt to get me to eat something not synthetic, as if that was at all likely.

"She's harmless." Blaine said quietly, nudging my shoulder as he stood beside me. I rolled my eyes and slumped against the doorway.

"She's insane." I muttered as he rolled his eyes at me.

"Come on, your ice cream's melting." he said, walking into the room and pulling Kurt away from his and Finn's argument over the health benefits of Candy Corn. Fine, annoying person could stay. But there was no way I was watching Mulan. I eventually won the Disney movie battle, surprisingly with an assist from Rachel. Our combined powers of annoying had overwhelmed the boys who quickly gave in to our demands. I looked over in surprise at Rachel who was beaming and talking animatedly to me about our success. Blaine made a big show of scowling at me but I could tell that he liked the fact that I was reconsidering Rachel. I was loathed to admit that he was right but I was having fun. Finn was basically silent and Kurt and Blaine were completely wrapped up in each other but I was having fun. And it's possible that it was with Rachel.

"I love this part!" Rachel exclaimed loudly. She had been pointing out every single moment in the movie and saying that. It was kind of like watching the movie with a four year old, but it kind of made it exciting too.

"Yeah, I totally want a pet tiger. That would be awesome." Finn chimed in as he played with Rachel's hair absent mindedly. Wow, I guess he could talk after all. So long as Blaine wasn't saying anything. That was something that was going to have to be dealt with eventually.

Blaine was completely devoted to his adoration of Kurt, talking quietly to him in that deeply "couple" way where it's obvious that the conversation is for them and them alone. He kept stealing glances back at me every once in a while to make sure I was ok, and surprisingly I was. Even being around coupling couples didn't bother me all that much. I call that progress.

Jasmine and Aladdin were flying through the desert on a magic carpet in what was easily the best part of the movie. I had always loved this movie. When we were kids and our mom was having one of her bad spells, Blaine and I would sit on the plush Persian rug in the little used study and pretend it was a magic carpet. We would check surreptitiously for adults before we took off our shoes and dug our feet into the plush silk fibres, pretending we were flying away from our house to far off places; Paris for me, Rome for Blaine. It was odd, but being here watching a Disney movie with my brother and a bunch of strangers was actually turning out to be kind of fun. Even Rachel's obnoxiousness was starting to become endearing, maybe I shouldn't have judged her so quickly I speculated as I popped a piece of popcorn into my mouth. We did have a lot in common with the whole music thing. And I did need a friend. If both Blaine and Kurt liked her there had to be something good there, right?

My phone buzzed in my pocket, sending me into an instant panic. The paranoia was completely exhausting. I was getting tired of myself. None of my so called friends had gone past writing nasty messages on my door, not even a text message. 'Calm down, Sage' I ordered myself. Everett hadn't called since I left, surprise, surprise. Not that I was expecting him to. He was probably shacking up with some other student. My phone started ringing and I sighed, pulling it out of my pocket. I didn't recognize the number at all but the area code was Lima, surprisingly enough. Everyone I knew in Lima was sitting in this room. I debated with myself for half a second before I got up and left the room, my curiosity winning out over caution.

"Hello?" I asked curiously. It was probably just a wrong number.

"Hi, Sage?" huh. Not a wrong number then. The voice was as much of a mystery as the number. I was A guy, but not any guy with a voice that immediately jolted me with recognition.

"Yeah" I replied after a second of considering a hang up. I wasn't quite that immature.

"Hi, it's Sam." Wait, what? Sam? Boy Scout kid? I wasn't quite sure what brought on the warm feeling as I grinned to myself. I was actually happy to hear from him. A guy I'd known for five hours had called me out of the blue and I was happy to hear from him. What was wrong with me? I paused, taking a seat at the bottom of the wide staircase in the foyer.

"Sam?" I asked, crossing an arm across my stomach. "How did you get my number?" Oh Christ almighty, was this guy a total creeper? That would be so depressing. Trust me to hook a stalker.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry, this is really creepy!" he exclaimed. I could hear the embarrassment in his voice. Even the way he admitted to being creepy was cute. Ok, there was officially something seriously wrong with me, "Blaine texted it to me, is that weird? You must think I'm a stalker now." Blaine. Of course he did. I was going to have to teach that brother of mine to mind his own damn business one of these days,

although at least that meant that Sam wasn't a stalker.

"No, it's fine." I told him, smiling in spite of myself and twirling a lock of my hair around one of my fingers. I shook my hair loose from my finger as soon as I realized what I was doing. Jesus Christ, I was flirting with him and he wasn't even in front of me. I could hear his sigh of relief as I crossed one leg over the other. Those damn butterflies were back again and all I had was his voice on the other end of the phone. This was a bad, bad idea. I wasn't ready to open this box. I hadn't even closed the last one yet, not really. The rational part of my mind was telling me to be friendly but distant. Unfortunately there was a breakdown of communication between my brain and the rest of me. Thank god Blaine was occupied with Kurt because I was sure the stupid smile on my face would have given him material to tease me with for years.

"I just... I mean, I wanted to say you were really good in glee club today." he sort of stumbled his way through the sentence, who knew stumbling could be appealing? "I mean, you and Blaine sounded good... and you looked, I mean you danced good." I could feel my smile widening as he stuttered his way through half formed compliments. I liked making him nervous, is that sadistic? Maybe a little. It'd been a while since I'd made anyone nervous. Everett was so infuriatingly conceited that it was surprising he had even stopped looking in the mirror long enough to know my name. The smile slipped from my face a little and I shook my head to clear the annoying thoughts. Everett was a jerk who started horrible rumours and Sam was sweet and adorable and _nice_.

"Thanks, I had fun singing, it's been a while." I paused. "I also had a lot of fun meeting you." When had I decided to say that? My mouth was following its own agenda again, obviously.

"Yeah" the sound of him laughing echoed across my phone. He had a good laugh, "I'm sorry if I kind of attacked you."

"Well, I was thinking of pressing charges." I joked, biting my lip and slipping back into the warm feeling of having someone call to talk to me. Just to talk. I grinned to myself as I remembered the fact that my original thoughts when meeting Sam had actually run along the lines of pressing charges. He sort of barked a laugh, a sharp burst of noise breaking through the tinny speaker of my phone.

"Well I'm glad you've changed your mind, then." Blaine had turned his head away from the TV and was watching me through the door of the media room, his eyebrows raised.

"Me too." I told Sam as I stuck my tongue out at the brother in question who grinned and turned back to the TV. I would never ever hear the end of this now. Oh well, might as well give in to it now that the secrecy was gone. I could hear Blaine loudly joining in with Rachel, singing along to a whole new world. "Tell me something about yourself Sam Evans." I insisted, turning on the step so that my back was leaning against the banister.

"Like what?" he asked, his voice a little perplexed. I shrugged, before remembering that he couldn't actually see me. "I don't know something about your life... what's your family like?" maybe a bit boring, but hey, I'd get there eventually.

"Awesome." he answered enthusiastically. That must be nice, to be that excited about family. "My parents are totally normal but my dad taught me to play guitar when I was a kid" I smiled to myself. A guitar man... I wonder if Blaine knew that. I suddenly had visions of us playing together and laughing, maybe writing songs. Ok, good lord, Sage, snap out of it. I shook my head trying to dispel cutesy daydreams.

By the time we had covered his family (oldest of three), awkwardly glossed over mine (too complicated) and gotten into favourite movies (we agreed on Star Wars and the Goonies but I couldn't for the life of me get him to see the merits of Harry Potter) Aladdin had rescued Jasmine from the hour glass and tricked Jafar into becoming a genie. I sighed, disappointed that my window of time was closing. "I suppose I should go spend time with Blaine." I said as he let out an echoing sigh.

"Yeah, I guess it's his birthday too." he joked. "You'll have to try and convince me about harry potter another day." I smiled to myself, not entirely sure how to respond to the suggestion that we would talk another day.

"Listen," I said after a long silence, making up my mind a split second before I spoke. I might as well make the first move here as I wasn't exactly relishing the idea that I had no clue where this was going. My heart was in my throat as I nervously chewed my lip. "Do you want to ride with me to school on Monday?"

"Wait your staying? For good?" He asked loudly. I couldn't decide if he sounded excited. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Then again, he had called me after speaking with me for exactly ten minutes. He had gone so far as to ask Blaine for my number. Maybe I wasn't just being wishful.

"Yeah..." I said slowly. "I mean, Blaine rides with Kurt and I don't want to be a third wheel but I don't want to ride alone." Stop explaining yourself, Sage, you sound like a mental patient. I'm sure he's very into being friends with a mental patient. I rolled my eyes at myself, thankful he couldn't hear into the insanity my brain spouted on a regular basis.

"I'll meet you at your house." he said, making me grin. He said yes. Warmth spread out through my body as I smiled to myself, trying not to squeal or do anything remotely embarrassing or overly girly while still on the phone.

"Sure." I said in my best attempt at a casual voice, mentally fist pumping and back flipping and doing all sorts of celebratory dances. "Till Monday, then." I was impressed that I'd managed to sound fairly normal. Way to be cool, Sage.

"Yeah, Monday." He responded quietly before ending the call. I clicked the end button on my own phone and let it drop to my lap, staring dumbfounded at the wall opposite me. I grinned disbelievingly at the wall and laughed softly into my hands. I couldn't believe this feeling. 'He just wants to be friends.' I told myself, my brain trying to talk some sense into the rest of me. Even that couldn't dampen my buzz. Something significant had just happened to me during that phone call.

"You must be really happy with that wall." Blaine's voice interrupted my daydreams as he and Kurt filtered into the hall, headed toward the kitchen. I grinned over at him, unable to even be annoyed with his obvious matchmaker addiction, however misplaced it had been.

"I think it's a lovely wall." I said airily, putting my phone back in my pocket and standing, skipping down the two bottom stairs and linking my arm with my brother's merrily. "In fact, I think it deserves a better wall colour." I wrinkled my nose at the offending salmon.

"Yes, please!" Kurt exclaimed, enthusiastically jumping onto my redecoration scheme. He looked apologetically over at Blaine and shrugged. "No offence, but your grandmother decorates like an eighty your old woman." I snorted, looking around the foyer. There was no way my elegant grandmother who insisted we call her Gigi rather than grandmother had decorated this house.

"She won't care, she bought it furnished." Blaine said, confirming my suspicion and shrugging as the three of us moved towards the kitchen. I could hear the beginning strains of Beauty and the Beast coming from the media room.

"What are we doing?" I asked suddenly as we entered the large kitchen. I jumped up onto the counter as Blaine opened the fridge and pulled out a random assortment of vegetables, three eggs and a block of cheese, putting them onto the counter beside me. Kurt smirked to himself about my choice of seating, presumably realizing that preferring unconventional seating was a trait Blaine and I shared. He took a slightly more customary (and boring) seat at the kitchen table and shrugged.

"I need food that isn't synthetic." he said simply as Blaine pulled a cutting board from under the counter and began peeling vegetables.

"And he's making it for you?" I asked, stating the obvious as Blaine rolled his eyes. If he was allowed to annoyingly interfere in my love life, or lack thereof, I was absolutely allowed to make fun of his. I pressed a hand to my heart dramatically and fluttered my eye lashes in his direction. "Well I do declare, that's mighty kind of you, Blaine!" I exclaimed in a moderately awful southern accent.

"Gee, thanks." Blaine said sarcastically, without bothering to look up from what he was doing. Kurt rolled his eyes at the two of us.

"I might be great at soufflé but Blaine makes the most amazing egg white omelet I have ever tasted." That was true, I had been his personal taste tester for years while he perfected his recipe, not that I had ever complained. His omelets really were pretty incredible. In fact, I could really go for one right now, or chocolate. Chocolate would be good too.

"Do we have any cocoa puffs?" I asked Blaine as he separated egg whites into a small glass bowl. He didn't even bother to ask about my thought process, merely reaching behind him into the pantry and handing me the brown box. I opened it eagerly and popped a few of the chocolate flavoured puffs into my mouth. Kurt had watched this exchange disbelievingly, his mouth open slightly in shock. "What?" Blaine and I asked at the same time, me dropping my hand from my mouth as I chewed, Blaine ceasing his egg separation for the moment.

"You're just... really in sync." he told us simply, as I popped a few more cocoa puffs in my mouth before handing the box back to Blaine who placed it back in the pantry.

"I guess we are." he shrugged as I handed him a frying pan from the hanging pot rack a few inches from my head. We always had been. That was what happened when you spent absolutely all of your time together. It was actually nice to know that we hadn't lost that in the three years we'd been separated.

"It's just... weird." He said, still staring at us. I frowned. Weird? Blaine stopped dicing behind me as we exchanged a worried look.

"Weird, why weird?" I asked quickly

"Good weird or bad weird?" Blaine chimed in as I leaned forward towards Kurt, waiting for his response. His expression grew slightly alarmed at our interrogatory tone.

"Good weird, definitely." he informed us quickly. "It's kind of nice that you're so close, just unusual." I relaxed. Oh, if that was all. Blaine and I exchanged a smile before he turned his back to us, placing his frying pan on the grill. "Blaine told me you were staying." Kurt said as I hopped off the counter and sat next to him at the table, sitting cross-legged on the chair. He rolled his eyes at my inability to sit properly on anything. I felt a strange kinship to this boy my brother so adored. The slightly sarcastic, mildly self-effacing way he spoke, the way his face lit up when he looked at my brother, all good things in my book. I decided to seize on the opportunity that had presented itself.

"Speaking of which," I said, tapping lightly on the table top, "I may need a new to buy a new wardrobe soon, interested?" Kurt's eye had lit up at my use of two magic words in conjunction, 'Buy' and 'wardrobe'.

"The three of us could hit up Bloomingdale's tomorrow." Blaine gave a quiet cheer from behind me for what, I assumed, was a perfect omelet, clearly not listening to our conversation. Kurt was grinning widely in anticipation, a hundred outfits obviously running through his head.

"New clothes that I get to help pick out? We're in, aren't we?" he asked Blaine as my brother presented his boyfriend with a magnificent looking omelet.

"Sure." Blaine said simply as Kurt thanked him without words and dug into the omelet. Blaine took a seat beside me, watching Kurt the entire time. I gazed at his face and crossed my arms across my chest. It was almost humbling watching the two of them interact with one another. The obvious adoration was one thing but what was more was the way they were aware of each other all the time. Blaine was constantly checking to make sure he knew where Kurt was. It didn't even look like he knew he was doing it. It sort of left an ache in my chest as I watched the two of them communicate through nothing but looks. I wanted that. Doesn't everybody want to find that person who makes every small worry that was so important suddenly seem unimportant? My phone rang for the second time that night, startling me out of my reverie. I pulled it out of my pocket again, wincing at the number and bracing myself before accepting the call.

"Hi Gigi." I said, mentally preparing myself for the onslaught as Blaine glanced quickly over at me.

"Sage, darling." my grandmother's voice was exactly as I remembered it, soft and lyrical, a slight French accent colouring the way she pronounced her vowels, despite 40 years spent living in America. "Perhaps you should inform someone the next time you want to visit your brother. I received a very worried phone call from your headmaster." Oh, right. I probably should have told someone at Burnham that I was going away for the weekend in order to avoid that.

"I'm sorry Gigi, I wasn't really thinking." I said carefully, well aware of how to avoid my grandmother's bad side. The key was to act apologetic and appeal to her soft spot for her family. "I just really wanted to see Blaine on our birthday." The Blaine in question rolled his eyes at how thick I was laying it on and accepted the bit of omelet Kurt offered him.

"You're a Dumaurier dear; it's your job to think. Obviously, the Anderson is becoming too strong in you at that school." I grinned to myself. Gigi had never liked my father, even when he and my mother had first married. She'd been more than happy to accept full custody of Blaine and I after mom died, if nothing more than to take us away from the Andersons. "I presume you have no intention of returning there?" she asked, startling me with the question. How did she do that? I wondered. She always knew what we were thinking before we were thinking it. "With Blaine at that public school it's a logical conclusion darling." she stated, answering the question I hadn't asked. I let out a deep breath and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"I'd really like to stay with Blaine, Gigi." I said, knowing that whether or not I could leave Burnham was completely up to her. As much as she left us to our own devices, she certainly wouldn't allow us to do anything that would jeopardize our futures. The pause on the other end of the phone was long as I chewed my bottom lip, Blaine staring at my face, his body as tense as mine as we awaited our fate.

"Of course you would darling, the question is whether it's what is best for you." she said. By this point both Kurt and Blaine were hanging on my every word and expression and I was hanging on Gigi's. She finally sighed and cleared her throat delicately. "I'll tell you the same thing I told your brother, dear. I trust you to make an informed, intelligent decision and if this is what you have chosen then I will fax the papers to the school on Monday morning." A smile had spread across my face as she spoke, making Blaine relax and grin across the table at Kurt.

"I know this is right for me Gigi." I said, smiling widely. I was actually getting a little choked up. At least our failed relationship with our father had led to us getting to know the amazing woman that was our grandmother.

"Of course you do my love, Dumauriers always do the smart thing." Oh the Dumauriers it was always the Dumauriers with Gigi. "I hope with you in the house, you'll be able to do something about that dreadful decor." I laughed out loud at that, considering she was echoing my exact thoughts from earlier that night.

"I'll definitely be attending to that, Gigi." I assured her as I looked around the kitchen. There was chicken wallpaper on the wall for goodness sake.

"Have a lovely birthday, dear. Take care of your brother." I glanced over at Blaine who had turned his attention back to Kurt now that my transfer was definite. I knew exactly what she meant. Blaine was great and all, but sometimes he needed someone to look out for him, whether he knew it or not.

"I will." I assured her.

"Try to eat something healthy tonight, dear." Oh how well she knew me. She'd actually been a participant at a few of our birthday marathons.

"I might." I joked, earning a laugh from her.

"Goodbye Darling." She said quickly, hanging up without waiting for a response, like she always did.

Blaine and Kurt cut off their quiet conversation as I ended the call. "So it's official?" Blaine asked grinning widely at me. I nodded, shrieking in surprise as he threw himself at me.

"Blaine!" I exclaimed, choking a little as his shoulder crushed my windpipe. "You're going to break the chair!"

"Or Sage." Kurt added. Blaine let me go and dropped back into his own chair, grinning widely.

"Are you three ever coming back?" Rachel asked, popping her head into the kitchen.

"Coming now." I said, jumping up from the chair and linking arms with a very surprised Rachel, skipping us into the media room where Belle and the beast were throwing snow at one another. Absolutely nothing could put me in a bad mood tonight.

-x-

The next morning was a different story. I groaned as I was dragged into wakefulness by the banging coming from the kitchen. What the hell was Blaine doing in there? I winced as the sun filtering through the window attacked my eyes. Teach me to open them. I rolled over and promptly fell off the sofa I had been sleeping on. This was the worst sleeping idea I'd ever had, I decided as I stared at the pot lights in the ceiling. Rachel giggled from somewhere to my left.

"Not. Funny." I muttered as her laughter got louder, Finn quietly joining in. "oh haha." I said, sitting up and rubbing the back of my aching neck. 'There was a perfectly good bed upstairs Sage, why did you fall asleep on a couch?'

"I'm sorry!" Rachel exclaimed, gasping for breath as she laughed uncontrollably at my graceful wake up. "You were just... you fell and... it was so funny." I rolled my eyes and grumbled darkly to myself.

"I'm going to see what Blaine's doing." I said pulling myself up and stumbled out of the room, only causing Rachel and Finn to laugh louder. My head pounded as I trudged through the foyer, using the walls for support.

"Whoa." Kurt said as I walked into the kitchen where he and Blaine were cooking breakfast and dropped my head onto the counter. "What happened to you?" He was probably referring to my ravishing state of beauty first thing in the morning.

"Mmm, cold marble." I muttered to myself, relishing the feeling against my pounding head.

"You should really know better by now." Blaine said obnoxiously as I seriously considered sending a rude gesture his way. He, of course, was perfectly gelled and composed, his polo buttoned to the top, bow tie firmly in place. He'd shaken it up a bit today and was actually wearing pants that went all the way down to the tops of his shoes. I restrained myself heroically from throwing a spatula at him. "I tried to get you to eat something decent but no, you weren't interested."

"I hate you so much." I told him, my voice muffled by the counter as Kurt laughed. Unfortunately, my overly chipper brother had a much higher tolerance for extreme sugar intake than me, hence the sugar hangover.

"I'm making blueberry pancakes." he said in a sing-song voice. No, nope, he definitely wasn't winning me over with pancakes.

"And I'm making eggs Benedict." Kurt added. I hated them both. But I loved eggs Benedict. I lifted my head off the counter and trudged over to the table, dropping into the closest chair.

"My head!" I moaned glaring at Blaine as he laughed and mentally praising Kurt as he handed me Advil and a glass of water.

"Well, start feeling better because we are going shopping." Kurt bounced onto a chair and crossed one leg over the other. I perked up a little at this. Clothes, lovely things. "We could drive into Westerville, they have better stores there." I nodded and forgave Blaine a little as he handed me a bowl sized mug of coffee. I sniffed it appreciatively, trying to inhale the caffeine directly into my body without having to go through all of that bothersome drinking business. If I could have coffee in an IV, that would be perfect. I took a sip, savouring the flavour on the tip of my tongue as if it was wine.

"Sounds good to me." Blaine said as Rachel and Finn filtered into the kitchen.

"Morning." Rachel chirped, grabbing a blueberry from the bowl on the counter "I have to get home; my Dads and I are having a Barbra marathon." I grinned at that, she was just so predictable. She bounced over to the table and pulled me up. "I had fun." she told me sincerely. "I'm going to hug you now, ok?" she asked as I laughed. She had definitely won me over I decided as she gave me a short hug. "You have my number, call me!" she insisted heading back over to Finn.

"It was fun, thanks Sage... Blaine." Finn said from the doorway. "See you at home Kurt." Kurt waved as the two of them headed out the door. A few minutes later we heard the front door slam closed.

Blaine abandoned the bowl of pancake batter and brought Kurt his own coffee-milk substance, smiling down at him tenderly. I looked away quickly, an inadvertent blush spreading across my face. For some reason, I felt like I had just blundered into an intensely private moment, both seeming somewhat oblivious to the way they were looking at each other. It was weird. Blaine had always been so guarded around anyone other than me. I never thought I would see him let down all of his walls for someone else.

"I'm going to take a shower." I decided suddenly, feeling like an awkward third wheel. Blaine looked as if he hadn't even known I was still in the room until I'd spoken. I sprang up from the table and hurried up towards my bathroom. It was great; it really was great to see him like this, so willing to be open. It was just a little odd. My mind inadvertently jumped to Sam as I thought about what my brother and Kurt had. Maybe we could have that too. 'Stop jumping to conclusions, Sage,' I told myself firmly. My mind was becoming a real problem when it came to him. I could anticipate it getting me into a lot of embarrassing trouble. Sam and I were just friends. I shook my head at myself and turned the hot water up until it was scalding, hoping I could maybe scrub thoughts of him out of my mind. Just friends, I repeated to myself as I let the water soak my long thick hair, beginning the never ending process of washing a head of hair like mine. Blaine and I were cursed with the same horribly unmanageable hair that we'd inherited from our grandfather; Cooper was the only one who'd escaped that particular hell. Blaine's solution was ridiculous amounts of hair gel, mine was a beautiful thing called a Straightener.

After I'd gotten through with my hair, I quickly rinsed myself off and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel securely around myself before I padded across the wood floor of my new bedroom. So we were driving to school together on Monday, I thought, my mind flipping back to Sam. My mind had been doing that a lot since yesterday afternoon. Friends drove together all the time. It probably didn't mean anything; carpooling was good for the environment. I shook my head at myself and pulled the now drenched towel out of my crazy mess of hair and hung it on the hooks at the back of the bathroom door. Thank god I'd at least remembered to pack my hair products. I took a seat on the frilly vanity stool and surveyed myself in the mirror. I didn't look any different than I had a week ago. I still had the same thin face and angular jaw, the same round hazel eyes, the same long, dark hair. I looked identical to the me from a week ago, but I felt so different. The light at the end of the tunnel had been Yale. That was all I had been striving for. Now I had so much more. I had Blaine and music and new friends, maybe even new love. I smiled to myself in the mirror before plugging in my hair dryer and beginning on the process of making my hair presentable to the world.

-x-

"Need Coffee!" Blaine mumbled pitifully four hours later as Kurt and I surveyed the outfit we had put together in the full length mirror.

"Just a sec, babe." Kurt said absent-mindedly, motioning with his finger for me to twirl. Blaine slumped against the wall dejectedly as I complied, the skirt of the dark green dress flaring slightly. He walked in circles around me, sizing up the outfit silently, it sort of felt like he was a judge at a dog show or something. 'Hmm, yes, he's decided to go with the dark green Judy.' 'Excellent choice, excellent choice, Stephen, just what I would have gone with.' The commentators in my mind mused over the merits of the dress as Kurt continued to circle. I was actually a big fan of this dress. I loved the fact that it was made of a cotton jersey material that fell to my knees. I loved the brass button detailing across the scooped collar. I even loved the suede belt Kurt had paired it with although I hadn't been all that thrilled with it on the rack. "You're a very small person." He said finally, looking down at me from his vantage point a foot above mine.

"Gee, thanks!" I exclaimed, pulling myself up to my full height of 5'2. I wasn't that small! I had grown an entire eighth of an inch in the past year. He shrugged, allowing a small teasing smile to cross his face. He handed me some mustard yellow silk heels that brought me up to about 5'5 and sceptically handed me the jacket I had picked out for this outfit. "You'll be surprised!" I insisted as I took it from him. Biker jackets with frilly dresses were kind of my speciality. What was the point of fashion if you couldn't take a couple of risks?

"You know what?" He mused, crossing his arms across his chest and taking a step back, surveying the completed look, shoes, jacket and all. "It actually works." I smiled triumphantly. Another fashionista converted to the biker jacket.

"Great, awesome, you now have 23 new outfits, can we pay for this and please get some coffee!" Blaine exclaimed, directing the end of his comment, combined with puppy eyes at Kurt who was bound to give in. Had we really gotten twenty three outfits? That was a hell of a lot of outfits.

"Alright, alright, just let me get changed." I stated rolling my eyes at Blaine's dramatics and heading back into the changing room. I quickly pulled the jacket off and the dress over my head, replacing it with the jeans and blouse I had put on this morning and stepping into my black leather flats. A surprisingly short time later I was squished uncomfortably into the back seat of Kurt's car, surrounded by bags as Kurt pulled into the parking lot of the Lima Bean. I had actually heard a lot about this place, it had been the setting for 90% of Blaine's anecdotes for the past year or so.

"Best coffee ever." Kurt informed me as I pushed the bags off of me and struggled to get out of the car. I refrained from answering as I attempted to undo my seat belt unsuccessfully. "Perhaps we over did it a little." he mumbled as he watch me wrestle with a particularly persistent bag which I eventually conquered and shoved further in the back seat.

"Perhaps." I agreed, finally pulling myself out of the car and dusting myself off. Kurt and I linked arms, something that had become almost as automatic as it was with Blaine and walked across the parking lot into the coffee shop where Blaine had long since disappeared.

"SAGE!" a loud voice yelled the second Kurt and I walked through the glass door of the small coffee shop. I started violently at the sound of my name. The patrons of the Lima Bean were all looking disapprovingly at a table in the middle of the shop where a plethora of blue and red blazers lounged conspicuously. My jaw dropped as I paired the voice with the enthusiastic face that had shouted my name.

"Thaddeus!" I exclaimed, almost as loudly as Thad rushed up to me and pulled me off my feet, twirling me a little as he gave me a hug. The customers who had looked askance at the volume of Thad's exclamation were starting to look fondly at the two of us. Never underestimate the power of cuteness in getting people to like you.

"You're the only person who can ever call me that!" he stated as we walked over to the table where Nick and Jeff were sitting.

"I know this." I informed him, sitting in the chair he pulled out for me. He said this every time he saw me. Apparently I was allowed to call him Thaddeus because I was me (don't you all wish you were me now) but anybody else would suffer some kind of physical pain. Thad was a little vague on the details, mostly because he hadn't hit anybody in his entire yuppie life.

"I'm saying it for the benefit of others." He stated glaring at Nick and Jeff across the table who grinned evilly. They were obviously planning to call him Thaddeus for the rest of his life.

"Whatever you say, Thaddeus." Kurt piped up from beside me. "Oh, hi, by the way." he said rolling his eyes at the boys who hadn't even bothered to greet him. Thad looked over at him guiltily, realizing he had barely acknowledged Kurt's presence during his greeting to me and shrugged apologetically.

"Kurt we miss you and your wacky ways in the Warbler practices." Nick chimed in, Jeff nodding wildly in agreement, the way the two of them always did. Sometimes I thought they shared a brain.

"Yes, we miss the daily lecture about how unfashionable our uniforms are." Thad added teasingly. "If you two are here, Blaine can't be far behind." he added, craning his neck around the coffee shop. Blaine chose that moment to make his way over to us from the counter, earning an excited shout from the warbler boys and many claps on the back. Apparently they had somehow seen me the second I had walked in the door and missed Blaine altogether.

"Venti triple Americano extra dry." Blaine said, handing me my coffee and passing a slightly smaller cup over to Kurt.

"Are you ever coming back to Dalton, Blaine, we need you!" Jeff was about a half a second away from begging on his hands and knees by the looks of it. "You too, Kurt, ditch Mckinley and come back, David's gone gavel happy without you two there." I rolled my eyes. It was no surprise that with Wes at Oberlin, David had taken over as head of the council. Plus he was way more straitlaced than Wes had ever been. Blaine laughed ruefully and glanced over at Kurt who was shaking his head.

"Sorry guys, Mckinley is where my heart is now." he stated simply, earning an adoring look from Kurt and fake retching sounds from the rest of us.

I could really live with this being my life now. I decided as I watched Blaine and Kurt interact with the guys. The ride back to Burnham would probably have to happen next weekend but I could ignore that fact for the time being. I had a ride to school to stress about and a school to get involved in. This had sort of been the perfect weekend to introduce me to Lima. Perhaps I wasn't going to be in Purgatory after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Yes it's been a ridiculously long time and I have no excuses other than the fact that I had major writers block. I'm so excited and touched by all the alerts and favourites, you guys really know how to make a gal's day so thank you! anyway, here finally is chapter three, it's moving a little slower time-wise than I had anticipated but it should pick up a little after the next few chapters. I hope you guys enjoy, feel free to review, I love them, they are like tasty morsels of candy. I'd also like to give a shout out to my number one beta and darling sister Petrapan who not only harassed me in person but in email, text message and eventually by posting a review in which she called me a "little cabbage". She's an odd duck. **

**Disclaimer: Do not own glee, wish I did but i still get to play around in their world for a little while.**

**Loves, Belle**

* * *

The incessant shrieking sound next to my ear needed to stop. That was my only coherent thought at 5:00 am on Monday morning as I groaned to myself and felt blindly for my alarm clock. Hopefully I could find it and abuse it until it stopped making that awful, awful noise. The shrieking picked up in pace as my alarm berated and ridiculed me for not being awake enough to turn it off. Since when were alarm clocks so much like bitchy teenage girls? Also, why the hell couldn't I find the damn thing? And why had I wanted a bed with so much mattress in between me and the bedside table? Maybe Blaine had replaced my real alarm clock with one of those robot ones that ran away and made you find them. Maybe that was why I was so unsuccessful at stopping the most annoying sound I had ever heard. I let out a guttural whine as my hand came into sharp contact with the corner of my bedside table, cracking painfully against the mahogany. The entire world sucked today, why oh why did five o'clock in the morning even exist? I groaned at the world as I finally managed to find the off button and fell back onto my pillow with a sigh of relief, fully prepared to ignore this unfortunate concept of waking up. Waking up at five am was for crazy people and for suckers.

My second coherent thought of the morning followed soon after I had settled myself to go back to sleep. Today was Monday. My eyes flew open as I sat up, and stared at the wall across from my bed, suddenly remembering exactly why my alarm had started shrieking at 5:00 am. Today was my first day at Mckinley, along with... other things. My hair tumbled around my face as I turned and dropped my feet to the floor, staring at my hands clenched in the duvet. I had two and a half hours. My mind shrieked incoherently at me for a moment as I processed that. Two and a half hours to shower, do my hair, find the most amazing outfit I had ever worn and look as perfect as possible for the drive to school. It occurred to me for a moment that I should rank starting at a new school higher than the thirty minute drive before it, but I was excited. It had been a long time since I'd had the chance to make a new... friend. Something that somewhat resembled a giggle escaped me at that moment, thank god Blaine wasn't around to hear it. I threw the heavy duvet to the other side of the bed and glanced at the clock flashing mockingly at me. I only had two hours and twenty three minutes. Two hours and twenty three minutes to be perfect. 'Break a record, Sage.' I thought to myself as I raced into the bathroom and stripped off the tank top and pyjama pants I had worn to bed.

I stepped under the spray of hot water steaming down and reached for the shampoo, slathering it through my hair and quickly working the suds into my scalp. It wasn't really that big a deal, the whole first day, drive to school business. Sure, I'd been going to the same school since I was four but I was going to be fine, right? I manically rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, conditioning it as quickly as I could manage with my tangled mass of curly, uncooperative hair. The important thing was to make my own mark at Mckinley. I wasn't interested in tagging along with Blaine and his friends and being the pathetic hanger on with no life of my own. That was why this drive with Sam was going to be good for me. Sam was the first person I had met that wasn't through Blaine. Kurt and Rachel were great but it was different. In a weird way it sort of felt like Sam was my own accomplishment, despite the fact that Sam was Blaine's friend too and that Blaine had been instrumental in our continued friendship. I sighed and rinsed out my hair, scrubbing frantically at my skin as I realized that I had already been in here thinking for at least ten minutes, only leaving me two hours and fifteen minutes. I was absolutely over thinking things as usual. And things would probably turn out to be the complete opposite to what I had meticulously planned which was also normal for me. I twisted the shower taps until the water stopped spraying from the shower head and stepped out into the steamy bathroom. I had completely fogged over the mirror with the heat of my shower but I could still make out a hazy vision of myself as I wrapped a fluffy white towel securely around my frame. Hopefully the next two hours would be enough for me to return to a normal colour, I was fairly sure that lobster wasn't quite the look I was going for. I stepped up to the mirror and swiped the condensation as well as I could, staring at my pale face and biting my lip. It was possible that I was sort of going into psycho Sage mode. I had a tendency to overdo it a little bit when I was nervous, over thinking things, making a huge deal out of nothing. This was nothing, I told myself firmly. It was just a school like any other. There was no pressure here.

I pulled my hands through my wet, tangled hair and quickly wrapped a towel around it, effectively paralysing it until I could figure out what to do with it. I still had to pick what I was going to wear, had to do my hair, my makeup and somehow manage to calm down so that I was mildly coherent when Same showed up in – holy crap- two hours. I bit my lip and trudged over to the walk in closet Kurt and I had filled on Saturday. Why was I freaking out about this? I wondered as I began to survey the clothes hanging neatly in order of hue and category. It wasn't like I had never picked out my own clothes before, I mused as I went through the clothes one by one, passing what I wasn't interested in and tossing what looked promising onto the bed. I loved clothes, picking outfits was the best part of the weekend. It wasn't even like I was getting dressed for a date or job interview or performance, this outfit was relatively low pressure. I stared at a cream shift dress printed with a pattern of birds across the fabric, finally listing it as a possibility. A brown leather belt quickly followed along with a navy blue cardigan.

"Ok, this is going to work." I told myself, surveying the clothes laid out my bed. Then again, was this outfit good enough for a first day of school? I had never picked out an outfit for school, ever. I had started at Burnham when I was four years old, first in the lower school, then in the upper and as a result had basically worn the same outfit five days a week since I could count. I paced nervously in my closet, glancing every few seconds at the outfit I had picked out. Maybe the cardigan was too much? It was September in Ohio, it wasn't quite cold yet but it certainly wasn't summer anymore. I bit my lip, effectively paralysed by indecision. I needed a second opinion.

-x-

"Bllll-aiiii-ne." I said in a sing-songy voice, as I entered his room, trying not to make too much sound with my heels clicking on the hardwood floor. It had taken approximately an hour to completely put myself together, including hair and makeup and I was at a complete loss about whether or not I liked the result. All of sudden any opinion I had on fashion or makeup or my own face had gone completely out the window. Hence me tiptoeing into my brothers room twenty minutes before his alarm and risking life and limb for his opinion. I took a seat in the red leather arm chair next to Blaine's bed and continued to call his name every few seconds. "Blaine, the house is on fire!" I exclaimed in an anxious voice stifling a bored yawn as I examined my nails absently. Sometimes I wished I was one of those girls who cared enough about their nails to pay for a manicure, but I just couldn't be bothered. I tapped the fingers of my left hand against the red leather armrests of Blaine's armchair as I continued to examine my long, but as of yet unpainted, nails. Ugh, nails were boring. I sighed and slouched against the back of the chair, completely bored with waiting for Blaine. "Blaine, I accidentally stabbed myself, I need you to call 911!" Again, I got no response from the lump of blankets in the middle of the bed. "Blaine, there's blood everywhere!" I added for good measure. "Oh no! It's getting all over your bow ties!" I sort of sounded like the damsel in distress from an old black and white film, and still, I got no response. Okay, fair enough, that one probably wasn't all that convincing. Although getting rid of his damn bow ties would have been a big plus. "What if that were true?" I mumbled at his unresponsive form. I told him I was bleeding and I got no response? What a fantastically concerned brother I had, lucky me.

I glanced over at the clock on his end table, rolling my eyes at the flashing red numbers. 6:42? I had been sitting here, unsuccessfully trying to wake Blaine up for 15 minutes. Seriously, what was it going to take to get him up? I leaned over and scooped up the cushion I had dumped on the floor earlier and tossed it at his head. I cheered quietly as it hit its mark. Bulls eye! I'd forgotten how fun throwing things at Blaine's head could be. I glanced around his room, looking for something else to throw at him. The hair gel? I wondered as my gaze fell on a tube of luxury gel sitting on his dresser. Nah, when he woke up he would probably murder me for putting it in danger. There was a pencil on his desk but I disregarded that quickly. I wanted to wake him, not blind him. The cushion would just have to do, I decided as I plucked it from where it had settled next to Blaine's head and prepared to throw it again. It took six throws before he finally started to act like he was alive. I quickly kicked the cushion under the bed and looked innocently around the room, using my seriously excellent acting skills. If I got away with this it would be strictly because Blaine was delirious with sleep and not paying attention to my terrible acting. "Oh good morning, Blaine!" I exclaimed brightly as he sat up and groaned, rubbing at his eyes and yawning in the same moment. He looked confusedly at where I was sitting and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair.

"Have you just been sitting there waiting for me to wake up?" he asked rasping as I crossed one leg over the other primly.

"umm yes, I have been." I kicked the cushion further under the bed and smiled innocently up at him, batting my eyelashes dramatically in what I'm sure was a very convincing way. "I've just been sitting here waiting, not doing anything at all." I tapped the arm of the chair as he processed what I was saying and I glanced at the cushion, making sure it was sufficiently hidden. I could practically see the cogs sluggishly moving in his sleep addled brain.

"You're really weird." he finally muttered, before dropping back onto his pillows.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, alarmed as he cuddled his pillow. Was he just going back to sleep? He couldn't go back to sleep! I needed him. I stood up quickly and crossed to his bed, shaking him roughly as he groaned and pushed my hand away.

"What?" he asked irritated as I continued to shake him.

"I have to ask you a question!" I exclaimed anxiously as I avoided his flailing arm's attempt to swat me away.

"What?" He demanded again, sitting up and glaring at me menacingly. I stepped away from the bed and smoothed the wrinkles out of the dress I had chosen. I paused for a moment as Blaine glared expectantly at me.

"Does this outfit work?" I glanced down at my outfit speculatively as Blaine groaned loudly and rubbed at his eyes angrily.

"Seriously?" He asked incredulously as I continued to examine my ensemble. I made a face at him, wondering why he was being such a baby. All I needed was a yes or no for goodness sake. I crossed my arms across my chest and stared back at him.

"Yes seriously!" I picked at the loose skin on my thumb absently as he stared at me. I needed his opinion, he was the only one here to ask. Therefore Blaine would just have to deal with it. He was obviously not at all impressed as he grumbled darkly to himself and grabbed his phone from from the end table. "What are you doing?" I whined a little as the camera on his phone flashed. All I needed was a yes or no, one word and he could go back to his precious sleep and I could stop worrying about this outfit. If this outfit was ok I could feel better about my first day and all the things I had to do today and the ride to school... Basically, any approval of this outfit would help me greatly. I waited impatiently as Blaine tapped out something on his phone.

"I'm sending Kurt a picture so you will leave me alone." he informed me pointedly before dropping back to his mountain of pillows to catch his last few moments of sleep. Kurt! I could have hit myself for not thinking of him first. Don't get me wrong, I love Blaine dearly, but he has exactly one look and it pretty much looks like he robbed the costume department of _Leave it to Beaver. _Kurt had helped me pick this dress in the first place, plus he would already be awake and fully aware, unlike his lazy, good-for-nothing boyfriend who was currently trying to burrow his way through the mattress in order to get away from my questions. My phone jingled, earning a new groan from Blaine, prompting me to roll my eyes in his direction as I read Kurt's text message.

"Approved! Provided you change those shoes. Honestly, Sage, you look like you're going to a board meeting. Where did you even get those things? -Kurt" I scoffed lightly. Just because he hadn't picked them out did not mean these were bad shoes. He had no idea what he was talking about!

"These are great shoes." I typed out before hitting send. Blaine pushed a pillow off of his head and gave me a look.

"Why aren't you gone?" he asked pointedly

"Thanks favourite brother!" I said bouncing over to him and kissing his cheek and darting away towards the door to continue my shoe argument with Kurt down in the kitchen. Blaine grunted in recognition and lazily waved me away.

"I like the birds." He mumbled, cracking his eyes open and rolling them at my answering grin. "Wait." he said as I started to close his door, "did you say something about bleeding?" My cheeks coloured a little as my grin widened at his obliviousness.

"You must have been dreaming." I made a little twirl to prove that not in fact bleeding, grinning at my success as he shrugged and sank into his pillows. Mission accomplished.

-x-

I didn't know what to do with my hands. That was the only thing I could fully focus on; the fact that I didn't know what to do with my hands. I watched the multi-coloured milk drip from my spoon as I stared at the bowl of soggy fruit loops in front of me. Did I shake his hand when he came? He had done that when we met but that sort of felt like something only a wannabe boyscout like him could get away with. Or maybe he was a former boyscout, we hadn't really gone into his boyscout history in our one conversation. 'Irrelevant, Sage!' I reprimanded myself for the hundredth time. My mind had a tendency to wander when I was nervous, something Blaine liked to claim was situational ADD when he thought he was being clever. The fact was, if I tried to shake boyscout's hand it would sort of feel like I was introducing myself to a teacher. Sam and I already knew each other - sort of - and he certainly wasn't a teacher. Then there was always the wave. I pictured myself standing by the open front door and waving awkwardly. Maybe standing two feet away from someone and waving as if they were half a mile away was a little too weird. So that was two odd and awkward greetings down, leaving only the hug in their wake. Possibly the best and at the same time most awkward option. Was the hug too much for a friendship that consisted of a physical assault, five minutes of conversation and a phone call? It wasn't really my style to hug random people. I pretty much only hugged Blaine, occasionally Cooper and even more rarely Gigi if she was feeling particularly sentimental and not very conscious of her appearance. Plus I didn't even know if Sam was a hug person. Why had I never asked him if in his boyscout duties he had grown accustomed to hugging random people he barely knew ? I rolled my eyes at that thought. Probably because that would be weird and sort of creepy, Sage, obviously.

"I gather Kurt approved." Blaine's voice startled me as he walked into the kitchen, hair gelled to within an inch of its life, bow tie firmly in place. Today he'd apparently decided to go with a pink bowtie and a blue and white striped t-shirt. Blaine's fashion sense completely baffled me every single day. My eyebrows furrowed together at his comment. Who approved? Kurt approved of hugging? Had I been talking out loud to myself? Blaine observed my obvious confusion with an amused grin on his face. Great, so it took him half an hour to look human and he got to stand there and observe my insanity while I got to slowly become more unhinged every day? Some people had all the luck.

"The outfit."he said gently, laughing lightly as my expression cleared. The outfit, right. I waved my hand dismissively in his direction. I'd moved on to a new thing to stress about around half an hour ago.

"Mostly," I mumbled, not bothering to inform him of the pitched twenty minute shoe battle which Kurt had eventually won with the words "Rachel shoes." I tucked my grey flats under the chair and went back to pondering my tie-die milk. Maybe I could just cross my arms and take my hands completely out of the equation. Was that cold? I didn't want to seem cold, that was the last thing I wanted.

"Okay," Blaine said, breaking my train of thought again as he sat down across from me with a cup of coffee. "What's up?" I glanced up quickly from my bowl, pushing the soggy and disgusting mess away from me. Maybe I wasn't so interested in breakfast after all.

"What do you mean?" I asked trying to clear lunatic thoughts about hands from my head. It wasn't exactly helping at all. He rolled his eyes at my obvious attempt at evasion as he put his cup on the table and gave me a knowing look. He gestured towards the abandoned bowl in the middle of the table.

"I have never seen you quite so unhinged as to ignore a full bowl of disgusting sugary by-products." he informed me, a teasing smile playing on his lips as I pulled a face at him and very maturely crossed my arms against my chest, slumping back against my chair. Curse him and his depth of knowledge of my inner psyche. It made it a hell of a lot harder to retain any sort of dignity. "So spill." he insisted, leaning back in his chair and draping his arm along the back of the seat nonchalantly. He was annoyingly observant and always had been. Plus he was just plain annoying, I decided a little cattily as he gazed expectantly at me. But, then again, he was Blaine and if I was going to talk to anyone on the planet it would always be him, in spite of his hero complex and 1950's sitcom persona. I tapped my finger against the table in a futile attempt to gather my thoughts into something somewhat coherent.

"I'm kind of scared." I admitted, my eyes wide as I focused on the look of surprise on Blaine's face. In the entire time I had been sitting in this kitchen worrying about hand placement, heck, even since the second Sam had bumped into me and I'd felt those tell tale butterflies i hadn't let myself articulate that one thought. I was scared. Period. And now that I had articulated it, I really didn't feel any better. I pulled my knees up and hugged them against my chest, sort of feeling like I was holding myself together emotionally by literally holding myself together. I had felt this way before, more than once and it really didn't end all that well. I rested my head on my knees as Blaine gazed at me, his expression confused as I contracted myself into a ball at the kitchen table.

"That's an odd choice of words." He said finally, taking a sip of coffee slowly as he weighed the words I had used in his mind. I knew he was trying to make sense of what I had said. I also knew that about twenty seconds was all it would take for him to ask me flat out. He narrowed his eyes at me as I counted down silently. Three. Two. One. "So I've given you all weekend." He started, right on time. "I haven't bugged you about what's going on." I dropped my knees and rested my elbows on the table, snagging his cup from across the table and wrinkling my nose at the taste.

"You always put way too much cream and sugar in your coffee, this is disgusting." I informed him, taking another sip as he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Then give it back and stop changing the subject." he told me as I handed his cup over and let out a sigh, resting my head against the back of my chair and staring up at the ceiling.

"You know, I've really been enjoying wallowing in self denial." I informed him sardonically as I picked my head up off the chair and sent him a sarcastic look. He rolled his eyes at me and raised his eyebrows expectantly, gesturing for me to continue. "Okay fine." I exclaimed, rubbing my temple with the heel of my hand and closing my eyes. I was starting to get a headache. "So in June, Everett asked me to the formal." I blurted, trying to get my speech out as quickly as possible.

"Everett Montgomery?" Blaine interrupted as I opened my eyes and dragged my hands through my hair.

"You remember him?" I asked in surprise. He scratched his forehead and looked away, uncrossing his legs and dropping his arms to the table. Blaine had transferred from Burnham at the beginning of eighth grade and he had never really been a part of Everett's preppy jock circle.

"Yup." He said, popping the p a little and staring down at his hands for a moment. He let out a loud breath and looked up, "He's an asshole." I laughed a little at his sarcastic smile as he ran his hand through his hair. How true that was. Blaine gestured with one hand for me to continue as I sighed and closed my eyes not particularly relishing the thought of dredging all of this up.

"So he asked me out and I said no, for the exact reason that you just outlined, he has always, since the age of four years old, been an asshole." Blaine nodded in agreement as I spoke, leading me to be even more confused by his obviously adamant dislike of Everett that I had been previously unaware of. I sent him a searching look as he gazed at a scratch on the surface of the table. "Anyway, he managed to convince me" I ignored his questioning look and he didn't push it, at least for the time being. Memories were what I'd been avoiding for three months. What I wouldn't give to eternally sunshine the entire month of June right out of my mind. I sighed loudly. Now that I had started, I might as well get it all out. "He was kind of perfect, heart throb movie star, convinced me that his tough guy persona was a defence mechanism." Blaine gave a slightly sceptical snort as I crossed my arms against my chest defensively.

"So what happened?" he asked quietly as I sniffed loudly and pressed my lips together. He sat silently, waiting for me to collect myself which I was actually having a surprisingly difficult time doing. My relationship with Everett Montgomery was not the high-light of my life. I shrugged, my eyes watering a little as I shook my head quickly and swiped angrily at my eyes.

"He told me he loved me..." I snorted sarcastically and slumped back against my chair. "After three weeks, you'd think that would have been a warning sign of some kind." Blaine winced sympathetically and grabbed my hand from across the table. I was thankful for the comfort on some level. On another level I was incredibly pissed off that the comfort was necessary, that I had been stupid enough to believe Everett's confession. Turned out I was just another stupid girl with too many daddy issues.

"So... you and him?" he asked slowly letting the sentence hang there as I gave a loud sigh.

"Yes." I had figured it would be easier to admit if I just blurted it out. Apparently not so much. It was the oldest trick in the book. Tell the virgin starved for affection that you love her. Badda bing badda boom, you score. It really made me mad that I had been that girl.

"Do you want me to kill him?" He asked in a flat voice. I surprised myself by laughing loudly at that, breaking the tension that had been building in my chest throughout this entire conversation. I glanced over at him as he squeezed my hand and rolled my eyes, shaking my head lightly. He actually looked a little disappointed that I wasn't going to let him kill Everett. "So..." he started awkwardly as he crossed his legs again, "were you... safe?" Oh good god.

"Yes, god, please spare me the after school special, stop right there, no more talking!" I exclaimed loudly, holding up my hands as a way to physically stop him from continuing this line of conversation. Blaine shrugged awkwardly as I shuddered. I took a deep breath as I contemplated the next lovely part of this story. "So I thought we were in love, he was prince charming, blah blah blah." Blaine's hand had returned, a comforting pressure against the whole stupid world. "And then, at homecoming in front of the entire school," I let out another loud breath as Blaine squeezed my hand. "He basically called me cheap and easy and told me that it was all a bet. He and his friends made a bet to see how long it would take for me to give up my precious virginity to him." I stared at the table top, finding the same scratch Blaine had been examining earlier. "Apparently not that long." I could still see the entire student body of Burnham, all of my friends, everybody I had known since I was four years old jeering at me as if it was a bad 80's movie and I was Molly Ringwald. Only without the gorgeous boy running after me and seeing the error of his ways. "So, in conclusion, that is why I took the internship in Europe and..."

"stopped calling me." Blaine finished. "Now it makes sense." I sighed as he nodded in understanding. We sat in silence for a moment, each of us lost in our own thoughts on the subject. "I'm sorry that happened to you S." he said quietly as I tucked my hair behind my ear and shrugged silently. I was sorry too but that wasn't going to change anything. "So you're freaking out about Sam because you think the same thing will happen?" he asked his voice confused as he gazed at me sceptically. I sighed and stopped myself from smudging my makeup at the last minute.

"No." I said, kicking the table leg lightly as I tried to make sense of my own thought process. "I'm just worried about getting hurt again. About making a fool of myself again."

"Ok, first of all, Sam isn't Everett." Blaine said slowly.

"I know." I said, my voice barely audible. " I just don't know how to deal with this, Blaine. I'm awkward, he'll see through the dress and the shiny hair and actually see me and I'll make a fool of myself and I'll never be able to be in the same room as him again" the words were falling out of my mouth at an increasingly rapid rate "and what if everyone at Mckinley finds out that I'm some over neurotic, under socialized, over achieving private school freak?" I asked loudly as my finger beat out a staccato rhythm on the table top. I couldn't bring myself to look at Blaine's inevitable gaze of sympathy; it would just make my pathetic nature all the more obvious. I sighed

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, S, you are not a freak." Blaine interrupted my diatribe by stretching his hands across the table and placing them on top of mine, halting my frantically tapping fingers. "You are awesome and everyone who has ever met you loves you." not actually true, I was essentially a social pariah at Burnham. "Crazy, Sadomasochists notwithstanding." he stated, echoing my thoughts. I dropped my chin into my hand and gazed a him speculatively "Seriously, Sage..." he stated, squeezing my hand lightly before letting go, "Sam's a good guy, even-" he held up his hands, halting my protest "if you're just friends." I had to roll my eyes at the innocent act coming from the guy who had texted Sam my number and was shoving us together at every opportunity like some overly gelled version of the matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof. "Just take it slow, make sure you're comfortable. Obviously Sam likes you and I'm sure he'd be just as happy to be the friend of my amazing sister." I rolled my eyes and grinned at him and his ability to actually make me feel better. "And as for Mckinley," he continued looking earnestly over at me, "they aren't going to know what hit them." A grin had spread across my face, completely without my permission as Blaine tried to bolster my ego and calm my nerves. I decided immediately to disregard the fact that he had been at Mckinley for all of two weeks and take the pep talk as he grinned over at me and squeezed my hand again. This was Blaine's forte, the talk down. He had managed to make me feel better innumerable times throughout our childhood and this was no exception. I would be fine, right? Blaine said I would be fine.

"You're like, one of my favourite people ever, you know that, right?" I said as he grinned over at me.

"Of course I do."

"Ahem" My head whipped around as Kurt crossed his arms in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning against the door frame. How the hell did he keep getting in here, the front door was locked. He was a ninja, obviously. My brother was dating a ninja. Geeze, I really needed some coffee if I was going to behave like a normal person.

"Good morning." Blaine said without a hint of surprise, crossing one leg over the other and taking another sip of his coffee. I rolled my eyes at how nonchalant he was about Kurt's sudden appearance. Obviously, his boyfriend popped up in odd places often. I stood up and walked over to the coffee maker, not bothering to dilute the beautiful stuff with cream or sugar before downing a mug of my own.

"Morning." Kurt responded, strolling into the kitchen, his hands in the pockets of his moss green blazer as he halted beside Blaine's chair. "Not to interrupt this very 'Full House' moment," he stated, glancing at Blaine "But we should get going if we don't want to be late." Blaine glanced casually at the wall clock as I placed my cup on the counter. Ten minutes. I had ten minutes before Sam was supposed to be here, which meant my dear brother had to leave in the next two minutes.

"I don't know," Blaine started, making my head snap up towards him. "maybe we should stay. Sage, are you sure you don't want moral support?" My eyes narrowed into a glare as he placed his cup in the dishwasher and closed it, running a hand through his hair. He was trying to kill me. Either that or give me a heart attack. He sent an innocent look my way.

"Haha, very funny." I muttered, standing and grabbing my bag as Kurt clucked disapprovingly at my brothers' antics, gently pushing him out of the kitchen as I followed them.

"Stop teasing your poor sister." Kurt insisted as we reached the entryway, sending a sympathetic look my way and pointedly handing Blaine his bag. "By the way, you look fabulous." Kurt informed me absently, checking his hair in the large mirror hanging across from the closet. "If Sam has a brain cell left after all that hair bleaching he's not going to know what hit him." Blaine threw an 'I told you so' look my way as I rolled my eyes skyward. Much as I appreciated the compliments, Sam was going to be here in six minutes and I wanted them long gone by the time he got here.

"Thanks Kurt." I said grudgingly, crossing my arms across my chest. "Now, much as I love you two for trying to make me feel better, can you both please leave?" Blaine grinned over at Kurt and rolled his eyes as he pulled his cardigan on and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Alright, alright, we're leaving." he said, pulling me into a hug. "Good luck, favourite sister." he said as I chuckled at the endearment and returned his hug.

"Thanks." I said as he lightly kissed my cheek and pulled away, looping his arm through Kurt's. "Love you."

"I love you too." he raised his eyebrows and gave me a silly grin as he and Kurt finally, mercifully walked out the door towards Kurt's Navigator.

"I don't know why you can't wear pants that are a normal length, babe." I could hear Kurt saying as they walked down the pathway.

"Capris are for cool people." I rolled my eyes as Blaine hopped over something small on the driveway. He was apparently unable to just walk normally.

"Capris and bowties, huh?" Kurt responded as they reached the car.

I was saved from hearing Blaine's teasing reply as I watched them get into the car and drive away, letting out the breath I had been holding for the past eight minutes and thirty two seconds, since Kurt had informed me of the time. I bit my lip as the nerves returned in full force without Blaine here to annoy me.

"Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine." I muttered to myself, pacing back and forth across the marble floor of the entryway, my dress swishing above my knees. Everything would be fine, there was nothing to freak out about. It was just a casual car ride between friends for God's sakes.

No matter how anatomically incorrect and impossible it was, I could have sworn my heart stopped as a loud knock sounded on the door. Good God, I was going to throw up. I glanced at myself in the mirror and ran a hand through the sleek straightened hair that had taken 45 minutes to perfect this morning. 'Show time.' I thought as I walked over to the front door and opened it slowly. Sam's smile was the first thing I noticed as he stood squarely on the front step of my house, gazing around a little bit with a slight look of awe on his face. My god he looked good in blue, I noted absently as I took in his dark blue and black striped t-shirt and leaned against the doorframe, crossing my arms across my chest. "Hey." I managed to get out the word in the most casual way I possibly could, given the fact that my heart had decided to jump into my throat and completely clog my airways. 'Way to be cool, Sage' I would be rolling my eyes at myself if it wouldn't have made me look like a psychopath. His smile really was amazing I decided as he directed it towards me. It took up about half of his face in an oddly strange ratio of mouth to everything else but it really didn't matter with Sam, somehow it just added to the appeal. It was nice to actually see a smile rather than that annoying half smirk I had dealt with the entire time I spent with Everett.

"Hey," he responded, his blue eyes settling on mine as he pulled me into a hug. 'That answers that question.' I thought, as he effectively quenched most of the awkward nervousness I was feeling with that one gesture. This was actually really nice, I decided, in the split second before he pulled away. I would have to find a reason to hug Sam Evans often. I cleared my throat slightly and let out a nervous laugh as we stood there smiling at each other. "You look really pretty." he said quietly as my heart gave a particularly painful throb in my throat. I could feel myself blushing as I bit my lip and looked at the ground, barely able to keep from jumping up and down. This feeling was terrifying.

"Thanks." I said, looking back up at him and letting out a small laugh. "Did you find the place ok?" I asked after a slightly awkward pause, blinking stupidly as he effectively removed my bag from my shoulder and carefully pulled it over his arm to join his own. I smiled slightly to myself as I stepped out of the house. I had a feeling that Sam was the type who would hold doors open for strangers and help little old ladies across the street. It only made him more adorable.

"Yeah, you gave good directions." he said as I locked the door behind me and turned back towards him. Kurt dictated the directions technically but, hey, I'd totally take the credit "You live in a castle." Sam joked, his eyes still wide with awe as he looked over the huge monolith my grandmother had bought.

"My grandmother is a fan of big gestures." I said, silently wondering a hundred things as we walked towards my car. Was the house a strike against me in his mind? Was him mentioning it a strike against him? Ugh, I was doing that annoying thing again, that thing where I question what I'm actually feeling and wonder whether I should be feeling something else.

"Whoa, wait." He said, halting on the front walk, effectively ending my inner freak out by staring at my car sitting in the driveway. "That's your car?" he asked incredulously as I halted beside him. "It's an m6." I squinted at the car. Sam hadn't been the first one to react with awe at my car, Kurt had done the same along with Thad when he'd seen it. Everett had claimed that it was his favourite thing about me, yet another sign I had missed. It was just a car.

"Yes?" I asked tentatively as Sam rushed forward and placed his hand reverently on the hood of the car as if he were a pilgrim at a religious relic. I really, really didn't get it. He glanced over at me, grinning adorably as I made my way over to the car.

"This is an m6, Sage, a bmw m6 cabriolet." He repeated, gesturing emphatically at my car. I shook my head, rolling my eyes at what a boy he was. Would it be trying too hard to let him drive? It made sense; I didn't really know my way around yet. It made sense, it totally made sense I decided, trying to convince myself that I wasn't going to make a fool of myself as Sam ran his hand across the driver's side door.

"Just get in the car, Evans, you're driving." I exclaimed, tossing my keys at him which he caught smoothly.

"Are you serious?" he asked as I walked around to the passenger's side. I couldn't help it. I had to burst out laughing as I caught the look on his face, half hopeful, half like a dog begging for a cookie.

"Yes, I'm serious." I said in between wholly undignified giggling. He smiled widely at my reaction as he walked around the car and unlocked my door, holding it open for me.

"Well then after you, my lady" he said, gesturing dramatically. He was such a boy scout. I bit my lip and let myself have a bit of a silent freak out as I dropped into the passenger seat and watched him cross in front of the car through the windshield. Good lord, was this really happening? This kind of thing belonged in a movie. In my limited experience, people didn't act like this unless there was an ulterior motive. "So, off to Mckinley then?" he asked as he lowered himself into the seat and pulled his seat belt across his chest. I nodded, clearing my throat and smoothing my hair a little bit.

"Lead the way, sir." I joked as he pulled out of my drive and drove towards the end of the gated community our house was in. The car was silent for a minute as the attendant buzzed us out. Thank God it looked like Sam was actually a really good driver, I probably should have thought of that before giving him my keys. I really hadn't thought this through. That was really really strange of me.

"Okay." he said as we drove through the higher end district of Lima, as small as that was. I glanced over at him as he stared at the road ahead of him. "You got to grill me on the phone." Grill was a bit strong. "Now it's my turn." I groaned and dropped my head into my hand as he laughed loudly. "C'mon, it won't be that bad!" he exclaimed as the right turning light clicked loudly. I shook my head and sighed.

"Fine." I groaned and settled back in my seat, awaiting the onslaught.

"Okay, what's your favourite colour?" I snorted, not expecting that one at all.

"that is such a lame question!" I exclaimed as he chuckled and shrugged unconcernedly.

"Give me a break, I've got to start somewhere" I rolled my eyes and snorted as he shook his head at me and continued staring at the road ahead of him.

"Okay," I started, "uh, I don't know, it changes." I told him as he tossed a sceptical look my way. I sighed and rolled my eyes. " okay, fine. today? I guess blue." My cheeks coloured as I realized what i had blurted out. I had meant to say green. I tried to keep a straight face and not subconsciously think about how he looked in that blue shirt as he nodded thoughtfully. It was a little ridiculous how quickly I was becoming the love-sick idiot again. There was a flashing red sign in my brain screaming that I was entering a danger zone. I braced myself for the next question I could see forming in his head.

"You'll have to let me know what it is tomorrow." He said slowly, glancing over at me with a shy smile. My face was doing that burning thing again, meaning it was most likely an extremely unattractive shade of pink. He wanted me to let him know tomorrow? Did that mean he wanted to make this driving together a regular thing? I was usually very good at forcing myself to think realistically but for some reason with Sam I was jumping to dates and love and happily ever after before I could blink. I shook my head lightly, trying to force my mind back to the conversation at hand as Sam tapped the steering wheel. "What's your favourite holiday?" he asked after a minute.

"That's easy, Christmas." I said immediately. "Madlibs Christmas carols." Who would not love a holiday that involved Madlibs?

"Okay, I have to know what Madlibs Christmas carols are." Sam insisted as I laughed out loud at one of the best memories of my childhood.

"Okay, you know Madlibs?" I asked turning in the leather passenger seat as he nodded slowly

"That thing where you pick adjectives and nouns and whatever and make some crazy story?" He turned towards me as we pulled up to a stoplight and watched me nod my head enthusiastically with what I could only describe as a fond smile on his face. At least I hoped it was a fond smile rather than a 'humour the crazy person' smile.

"It's something Blaine and I have done for years. Every year on Christmas eve, instead of singing Christmas carols like normal people, we insert random adjectives and nouns into random places and carol around wherever we are." It probably sounded like an insane tradition come to think of it, but it was hilarious. Sam sent me a sceptical look as I tapped out the rhythm to jingle bells on the dashboard. I was surprising myself at how easy it was to talk about Blaine with him. I had never felt comfortable sharing that with Everett, not that he'd ever particularly shown an interest. The car lurched a little bit as the light changed to green.

"That sounds insane." he informed me as I shrugged and secretly hoped that he wasn't going to do any more lurching in my car. This letting someone else drive thing had been going so well.

"It's awesome." I said, ignoring the part of my brain that had regular freak outs about stupid things like my car. I could pick out the best Christmases I had had based on Madlibs Christmas Carol experiences. The time we had wished the Dalton headmaster a repulsive Veteran's day or when we had startled a woman at the King's Island Christmas Spectacular by telling her all about Daniel the orange nosed platypus. "You should join us this year." I blurted before I had even had a chance to think over the comment. I was inviting him to join in with my brother and my insanely silly Christmas tradition. Wasn't there supposed to be a part of my brain that filtered conversation before embarrassing things popped out of my mouth? Thankfully, Sam nodded enthusiastically at the windshield, still laughing slightly at the thought of our Christmas Carols.

"I definitely will." He informed me. My smile had widened so much over the last twenty minutes that I sort of felt like I was going to have to massage my jaw later. I turned back towards the front of the car, needing to give myself a bit of a break from looking at him. My head was starting to spin.

"Next question." I told him, pretending to groan although I was actually kind of enjoying myself. When did I become this girl?

Favourite flower?" he asked, jumping into the next question, suggesting that he had had it in the back of his mind for a while. I grimaced as we turned onto the street that Mckinley stood on.

"That one's tough." I told him brushing my hair out of my eyes as he pulled into Mckinley's parking lot.

"Telling me your favourite flower is tough? He asked sceptically, pulling into a parking spot and taking the keys out of the ignition before handing them to me. I made a face. I had been hoping to hide some of my odder qualities for at least a little while, but hey, what was the point of him getting to know the girl I pretended to be? He popped out of the car and raced towards my side before I had a chance to open my own door making the butterflies in my stomach flutter wildly.

"I don't like getting flowers" I told him as I stood up and was met face to face with his smile about ten inches away from my nose. My breath caught in my throat as we stood there silently, staring at each other, my heart pounding so loudly I was surprised he couldn't hear it. It felt like time was moving slower, as ridiculous as that sounds. It was like the universe had suddenly decided that every second was now going to be a minute long as we stood there, staring at each other, separated by the open door of my car in between us. And then the moment was gone. I looked away, stepping away from my door and slamming it shut.

"Umm," he started, clearing his throat awkwardly and grabbing my bag again, slinging it over his shoulder. I couldn't help but crack a grin and shake my head at his obsessively boy scout nature. "you're probably the first girl I've ever met who didn't like flowers" he said, picking up the pieces of our conversation and smiling over at me as we walked towards the front doors, obviously trying to show me that he didn't think too badly of me for it.

"I didn't say I didn't like flowers, I said I didn't like getting flowers." I clarified as I pulled open one of the double doors and walked into the generic hallways of Mckinley high. "I don't get the idea of killing a flower just so I can look at it for a couple days." I explained quietly as he led me to the guidance counselor's office.

"That actually kind of makes sense." he muttered so quietly that I wasn't even sure whether or not he was talking to me. "Okay, fine, if I managed to give you flowers without killing them, what would be your favourite flower?" he asked me, stopping in front of a glass door leading to the office of one "Ms. Emma Pillsbury" if the sign could be trusted. He said it with another one of his signature smiles, which was doing nothing to quell those darn butterflies in my stomach. I bit my lip, grinning a little at his suggestion of buying me flowers.

"Okay, it's a tie. I like Roses." he nodded at the predictable answer. "And mountain laurels." As I had expected, his brows furrowed in confusion at the second flower.

"What the heck is a mountain laurel?" he asked, narrowly avoiding being hit by someone's backpack as they swung it onto their backs. The hallways were completely packed with teenagers shuffling to and from their lockers. I grinned a little, twirling a strand of hair as we stood there outside of the guidance counselor's office.

"look it up." I teased, smiling broadly as he laughed and looked down at the linoleum floor, scuffing his shoe lightly. He was so adorably shy. There was none of the cocksure bravado I had come to expect when dealing with guys. He seemed oddly genuine.

"You're probably the strangest girl I've ever met, Sage Anderson." He said quietly as he glanced up at me. I had seen his smile about a hundred times since he had shown up on my doorstep this morning but there was still something about it that just sent my heart racing.

"I'll take that as a compliment." I was officially turning into a love-sick school girl, I decided with a hint of despair as I blushed, scuffing my foot against the ground.

"you should." he said, smiling lightly as a bell clanged loudly through the halls. He handed me my bag, which I pulled over my shoulder quickly, my nerves returning a little at the thought of my next obstacle of the day. "do you want to ride home together?" he asked as he moved off a little bit to head to his first class.

"Sure." I called as he waved and walked off. I took a deep breath. I couldn't make up my mind about how I felt about this. Comparing them would get me nowhere, they weren't the same. That had actually gone far better than I could have hoped. Not only did I keep from making a fool of myself, but he hadn't been a complete dud either. He made me laugh and sure, he made the butterflies in my stomach go crazy but more than that, being with him had just been fun. Plus that little spark definitely made everything a whole lot more interesting. The love-sick school girl in my head was now jumping up and down in triumph. I desperately needed to focus though, I thought as I turned away from Sam's retreating form and towards the doors of Ms. Pillsbury's office. School had always been very very important to me. That was possibly a remnant of my father's propaganda but it was also supremely me. I wanted Yale, not because it would look good for an Anderson to go to Yale, not because I would be a fourth generation legacy. I wanted Yale because I wanted it. 'Calm down.' I told myself 'You are going to be Sage Anderson, and you are going to be fine.' I shook my head and opened the door of Ms. Pillsbury's office, knocking lightly as a red haired woman popped her head up to look towards the door. Ms. Pillsbury surprised me by how young and pretty she was, despite the fact that her neon yellow blouse was completely insane. "Ms. Pillsbury, I'm Sage Anderson I just transferred here." I blurted the whole sentence out quickly as Ms. Pillsbury nodded and smiled at me, gesturing for me to come in and close the door. The first thing I noticed was the smell of her office. A mixture of chlorine and bleach, paired with a slight smell of lavender was pervasive and so strong that I was sure I would smell like cleaning products for at least the next hour. Oddly enough, it wasn't unpleasant. Ms. Pillsbury's office sort of seemed like Ms. Pillsbury. The cheesy pamphlets mixed with the slightly artsy decorations and the almost sterilized environment echoed the combination of slightly old fashioned clothing and artsy jewelry paired with her somewhat stiffly proper persona. I knew immediately that I was going to like Ms. Pillsbury. All the best people had little quirks about them.

"Sage," she said brightly, squirting hand sanitizer into her hands and rubbing them together. "Please, have a seat." I smiled a little awkwardly and lowered myself into one the green upholstered chairs in front of her desk, dropping my bag on the ground and clearing my throat nervously. She gave me a kindly sympathetic smile as she brushed her hair away from her face and opened a file, shuffling the papers around as I sat awkwardly in silence. "So it says here that you just transferred from Burnham Preparatory Academy." I nodded quickly, sitting on my hands to keep myself from doing something stupid.

"Yes Ma'am." I said, my Burnham manners showing themselves when confronted with an authority figure. Ms Pillsbury put the sheet that apparently had my life story down on her desk and glanced up at me.

"That's a very good school," She said, looking at me searchingly with large brown eyes as she closed the folder and sat impossibly straighter in her chair. "I just have to ask why you would choose to transfer, especially when it requires such a relocation." I had been expecting this question and it was probably going to be a hard sell. Saying that I transferred for my brother often led to other questions about my family which I really didn't want to dredge up. She must have the fact that we lived with our grandmother written on that sheet, and the fact that I was totally willing to give up private school education for Blaine had a connotation all its own.

"Well," I started, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and crossing one leg over the other, "my brother used to go to an all-boys school." She nodded and a look of slight confusion crossed over her face as she waited for me to finish my thought. "But he just transferred here and..." I shrugged as her large brown eyes had cleared in recognition "we're really close, so now that he goes to a co-ed school, I wanted to go to school with him." I had forgotten that she was Shuester's girlfriend until the moment her confusion cleared. Of course she would know Blaine. Mr. Shuester probably told her about our little impromptu performance on Friday too. That could either be a good or a bad thing.

"Your brother is Blaine Anderson?" She asked in surprise as I mentally kicked myself, so much for not hanging on to Blaine. I nodded slowly as her smile widened along with her eyes. She was the only person I had ever seen whose eyes almost exactly matched her hair. Also, she opened her eyes wider on a regular basis than anyone I had ever met before. "Well Sage, what are your ambitions, since I'm assuming you would have stayed at your old school if Blaine hadn't transferred." I was thankful we were finally talking about school, and I hadn't had to deal with any awkward questions.

"I want to go to Yale and study journalism." I said immediately as Ms. Pillsbury's eyebrows shot up into her hair line. I gathered that not too many students at William Mckinley high school were quite so certain about what they wanted to do with their lives, especially as Juniors. I on the other hand, had an itemized list.

"Well... you certainly know what you want." she said, reaching into a drawer in her desk and pulling out a sheath of paper.

"Yes I do." I said nodding quickly and decisively. She added the paper to the folder in front of her and placed her hands on her desk, looking me directly in the eye.

"Well, Sage, I recommend that any student who is interested in an Ivy League education takes advantages of all of our AP classes which I'll take the liberty of enrolling you in." I nodded; Ms. Pillsbury repeating precisely what I had thought would be the case. The academics here weren't nearly what they were at Burnham so I wasn't particularly worried. "I would also recommend diverse extra curriculars that demonstrate a wide field of interest." Diverse?

"What exactly do you mean by diverse?" I asked frowning at this unexpected development. I had planned out my life meticulously; even this sudden move had a three page bullet point list to go with it. 'Diverse' extracurriculars were not on the list.

"Well," Ms. Pillsbury began, squirting another portion of hand sanitizer into her hands and rubbing it in. "I recommend at least an academic, artistic and an athletic extra-curricular." I bit my lip and clasped my hands tightly together, sitting straight backed on the edge of my seat.

"I'm not really the... sports type." I said slowly, rubbing my hands compulsively together as Ms. Pillsbury watched me speculatively. She crossed one leg over the other and clasped her severely sanitized hands in her lap.

"Well, there's always cheerleading, it's more of an art than any of the team sports." I could feel my eyes widening in disbelief at that. Cheerleading? How much more of a '90's cliché could this be? "Now you're lucky that... something interrupted their tryouts two weeks ago so the Cheerios are holding tryouts today." Ms. Pillsbury continued, oddly looking a little bit guilty as she interrupted my inner monologue "Although I know that cheerleading isn't everyone's cup of tea, they are 5 time national champions." She pulled out a sheet with the try out info and handed it over the desk. Could I really see myself as a cheerleader? I glanced over at her speculatively "You're a Junior so you have two years of possible National Championships. That would look great on a college application." I glanced down at my lap in confusion. I had definitely never thought of cheerleading. There wasn't even a cheerleading squad at Burnham, just like there wasn't Prom or glee club. Then again, if this would make a difference on my Yale application... I could handle cheerleading for Yale. I nodded slowly and took the sheet from Ms. Pillsbury.

"Good," she exclaimed brightly, "Now if you're interested in Journalism, I would recommend the school newspaper or the literary magazine," she handed me two more sheets from the interior of the desk as I nodded. This I had pretty much expected and determined on doing, Yale or no Yale. "The Muckraker is always accepting new staff writers, although I do have to warn you that it hasn't been the most well respected publication. And, with the impromptu performance you gave on Friday, I'm assuming you'll be joining glee club." I drew in a sharp breath as she looked at me questioningly.

"I actually wasn't going to join Glee club." I told her slowly watching her eyebrows disappear into her hairline again. I cleared my throat awkwardly as we sat in silence for a few seconds, Ms. Pillsbury waiting for me to explain my reticence. "I'm just interested in making my own mark here." I explained quickly as looked at me speculatively "I don't want to hang on to Blaine." She had been nodding slowly as I spoke, looking as if I had presented her with an unanswerable conundrum.

"I can understand that." she said slowly before clasping her hands in front of her on the desk, "but wouldn't it be just as bad to not join something you love because of your brother as it would be to join something only because of your brother?" I paused, that actually sort of made sense. Why had this never occurred to me? "Just think about it." she said, clearly a dismissal as she handed me a school map, a schedule and a locker combination. "Welcome to Mckinley, Sage."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hello lovely readers! I want to welcome any and all new readers, followers and favourit(ers?). My apologies again for the loooong weight, that pesky life of mine keeps getting in the way but I certainly hope that the updates will pick up soon. Please please leave any questions or comments you may have, I adore reviews, they make me very very happy. Another extra-special gold star to my sister and beta Petra-Pan who makes sure I make sense (most of the time)** Disclaimer: I unfortunately, do not own Glee or any of its characters. It is the sole property of Ryan Murphy and co.**

The first few hours I passed at Mckinley High School were a largely innocuous blur of awkward introductions and uncertain moments. After leaving Ms. Pillsbury's office I managed to find my way to the AP physics class without incident which, given my fairly awful sense of direction, was a miracle in and of itself.

Despite the fact, or perhaps because of the fact that class had already been in session for half an hour, the teacher, Ms. Jennings, didn't do anything horribly embarrassing like make me introduce myself, merely nodded absently and pointed me towards the supply cupboard for a text book. I could feel thirty pairs of eyes following me as I grabbed a textbook and made my way to the back of the small classroom, sitting in one of the many seats still available and pulling my notebook out of my leather messenger style bag.

Apparently they didn't get new students all that often, I reflected as 90% of the students stared unabashedly at me as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and kept my gaze locked on the chalkboard, hurriedly writing down the words on the board, copying letter by letter without actually paying attention to what it actually said. Didn't anybody here pay attention to their classes? Watching me apparently became boring after a few minutes when I hadn't yet jumped on my chair and started doing the hula so I was saved from any more of the awkward gaze avoidance as Ms. Jenkins droned on about something or other.

It was practically impossible to pay attention to the notes on the board. My brain was far too busy trying to reconcile everything Ms. Pillsbury had just said with my list. I've never been good at multi-tasking. After a few minutes of trying to make sense of the notes on the board, I gave up on catching the thread of a conversation that I was thirty minutes late for and sat, idly doodling in my notebook and glancing at the students in the room. It was a small class, suggesting that advanced placement classes were not all that popular at Mckinley, which was an enormous surprise to me, of course. The only truly enormous surprise was the fact that Mckinley even offered AP classes, I decided as I flicked my pencil back and forth, and took stock of my new classmates, most of whom had lost interest in me and turned back to their notes. My gaze lingered on the two cheerleaders in the class, singled out by the red and white uniforms they both wore. Did they just wear their uniforms all the time? There was something oddly repugnant about being branded in that way, simply a blur of red and white to everyone at this school the very day I transferred.

Cheerleading was definitely one thing that I was having a hard time forcing onto my list. I had never particularly enjoyed any of the gymnastics or ballet classes I had taken; merely attending because that was the sort of activity the daughter of Pierce Anderson was expected to take part in. I hadn't even been to a dance class in about six months and I had frankly been glad to be rid of it. For some people, dance is an escape, a form of expression when words simply weren't enough. For me though, dance was a constant reminder of the weight of Anderson expectations that had been lying on my shoulders for years.

My brothers had both gotten out from under that weight for various reasons, whether it was self-driven like Cooper or if, like Blaine, it was an unceremonious removal that he had no say in. In a way I was the only Anderson left to pressure and I could feel the weight of it pressing down on me no matter how hard I tried to fight back. Even when I barely had any communication with Dad he was still hovering over my shoulder. Cheerleading certainly wasn't something that fell under Anderson expectations though; a small voice in my head reminded me as I stared at the thin blue lines crossing the page in front of me. Maybe that was why I had such an issue with it. It was an odd sensation to be completely aware of the two warring parts of my brain in regards to my perceived path in life. Stepping away from Burnham was a huge accomplishment on my path away from my father which both excited and terrified me. I sighed quietly and looked up from my notebook, gazing around the room blankly. The facts were simple. I wanted to go to Yale. That had always, always been the plan. Yale was the primary objective of my list and according to Miss Pillsbury, cheerleading would help get me into Yale. I could suffer through two years of cheerleading for Yale, couldn't I?

An Asian girl that I recognized from Blaine's whispered commentary in glee club managed to catch my eye at that moment, thankfully interrupting the minor freak out I was having over this damn cheerleading squad. What was her name again? Theresa, Tanya... something that started with a T. I'd probably have to awkwardly refer to her as 'you' until I could get a chance to ask Blaine again what her name was. She waved at me with a small smile before returning to her notes and the droning voice of Ms. Jennings. There was the glee club issue to think about too, I thought as Ms. Jennings pointed adamantly to something she had written that I was paying positively no attention to. The fact was, I had a lot of fun singing on Friday, far more fun than I was likely to have on the cheerleading squad and some of what Ms. Pillsbury had said made sense. Maybe it was insane to close myself off to things just because I didn't want to strictly be identified as Blaine's sister. Maybe it was possible that I was taking my desire to be an individual a little too far when it meant that I closed myself off to things that I actually wanted to do.

The bell clanged loudly at that moment and I looked up, startled that 20 minutes had gone by while I had been doodling idly in my notebook and paying absolutely no attention to the classwork that would probably take me a week to make up. A small wave of panic washed over me as I rushed to write the down the homework written on the board and head towards my next class. One thing was for sure; at least while I was catching up I certainly didn't have time for both cheerleading and glee club.

"Hi." A voice said next to my ear as I stuffed my notebook into my bag quickly. I started violently, smacking my hand on the desk and wincing as I glanced towards the unnamed voice. It was the Asian girl from glee club, I realized as I pulled my bag onto my shoulder and shook my hand back and forth to try and get rid of the dull ache still permeating through my forearm. She was standing next to my desk, clutching her binder and textbook against her chest looking sheepishly apologetic as the rest of the class filed out quickly.

"Umm, yeah, hi." I said awkwardly as I grabbed desperately at the pencil currently rolling off the desk and on to the floor. I managed to catch the pencil as my bag swung forward and punched me roughly in the gut, prompting my second wince in the span of 60 seconds. And this, ladies and gentleman was yet another example of my complete lack of grace under pressure.

"Do you need help?" She asked, clearly responding to my multiple mishaps with concern as she tucked a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear and raised her eyebrows questioningly. The concern on her face was open and friendly as I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes and stood up straight, belatedly noting that she was only about an inch taller than me. The mark of any short person is constantly registering exactly how much shorter you are than everyone else. It seemed like the glee club sort of had the corner of the market on people who were nice to complete strangers. The rest of the class had been interested, sure, but I had a feeling that none of them would have come up to me if Tina hadn't. She was standing with her arms crossed next to the desk I had claimed in an actually semi-stylish retro dress. If she hadn't been wearing penny loafers I would have been very impressed, but hey, it was the thought that counted, right? She was still smiling expectantly at me as the silence between us stretched and I cleared my throat, heading it off before it became awkward.

"No thanks, I'm good." I informed her, sending what I hoped was a reassuring smile her way as I secured my bag across my shoulder and shuffled slightly towards the door. Hopefully she wouldn't think I was blowing her off or anything, but I really needed to find my next class and it would probably take me about twenty minutes just to figure out the damn map.

"You're Sage, right?" she asked, stepping forward to walk with me as I anxiously pulled my schedule and said useless map out of my bag while trying to remain relatively polite. I nodded silently, a surprised smile breaking onto my face at the fact that she remembered my name from the brief group introduction Blaine had made on Friday. I was pretty impressed, and a little reassured that she hadn't referred to me as "Blaine's sister". She was certainly presenting an argument for the possibility of my own identity within glee club. "I'm Tina." She told me, holding out a hand as the two of us walked out of the classroom together.

"Tina!" I blurted out, snapping my fingers in recognition "I knew it started with a T." She let out a surprised snort as she fell into step beside me, the look on her face slightly dumbfounded. I grimaced at my inner monologue failure as my face flushed what I'm sure was a lovely shade of fuchsia. What the hell was wrong with my filter these days? "Sorry." I said, my cheeks flaming as I glanced at the floor in embarrassment. "I have this brain to mouth filter issue." her snort developed into a full on laugh as I tentatively smiled and looked sheepishly over at her. It seemed that I hadn't made a total fool of myself quite yet, which was encouraging. "It's nice to meet you Tina." I said decisively before my mouth had the chance to blurt anything else remotely moronic. I could at least try to keep the embarrassment down to a manageable level here.

"It's nice to meet you too." she said laughing again and halting beside me as I pulled out my map which, as it turned out, had been relatively useless thus far. I gazed at it anxiously, turning it upside down and right side up to try and make sense of the random seeming squiggly lines intersecting the sheet. "You and Blaine sounded great on Friday, by the way." she informed me as I rolled my eyes at that particularly memorable moment. First Sam, now Tina.

"Thanks." I said rolling my eyes at the thought of Blaine's masterful manipulation to get that to happen. I pulled the bottom of my cardigan a little and returned my attention to the map. "It was under duress." I joked absently, my head whipping wildly to and fro as I tried to figure out exactly where I was. The problem wasn't that I didn't know where my physics class was, it was more that I couldn't figure out where the hell I was. "Blaine can be irritatingly persuasive." I added for good measure. So if the front doors were to my left then my physics classroom was down the hall straight ahead. Or Was I reading the map upside down and I was supposed to go right? I turned the map, testing my theory. What the heck kind of maze was this school?

"Ah, yes, I've noticed." She agreed. "He convinced me to watch all five hours of the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries in one sitting with him over the summer." How typically Blaine, I thought, snorting at her story and looking up at her, leaning back against the lockers.

"Wow, you're totally his new best friend." I informed her, grinning as she laughed and shook her head, her long brown hair falling across her shoulder at the movement.

"Yeah well, my boyfriend Mike and I spent a lot of time with him and Kurt over the summer." She told me as I finally put two and two together. I did have a vague recollection of a Mike in Blaine's emails over the summer. There must have been a Tina in there too but I had been somewhat pre-occupied wallowing in self-pity. The warning bell sounded, sending me into an instant panic as I glanced frantically back at the map. Why did these things have to be written in made up languages? "Where are you trying to get to?" she asked as I glanced up at her, pondering the thought of admitting my directionally challenged nature and accepting Tina's help. On the one hand, it was perfectly plausible for me to be lost on the first day of school. There was no reason to admit to the fact that I habitually got lost around Burnham after eleven years. Tina actually seemed very willing to go out of her way to strike up a friendship with me. I quickly admitting defeat, weighing my options and deciding that the time saved alone would be well worth the admittance of my directionally challenged nature.

"Am I that obvious?" I asked ruefully as I handed her my map and schedule.

"Well, the fact that you were holding it upside down was a pretty good give away." she informed me, grinning to herself as she examined my map quietly. I made a face at that revelation as she stepped towards me with the map. "Okay, Mr. Kleine's Calculus class is actually like three doors from here." I whipped my head towards the door she had pointed and rolled my eyes at myself as she laughed lightly. Of course Mr. Kleine's class was three doors away. Because I was Sage Anderson and the universe loved to make me its own personal joke.

"Thanks Tina, you are a total life saver." I exclaimed as I watched the steady stream of students filing into the classroom she had pointed out.

"No problem!" She exclaimed, smiling widely and stepping towards the flow of hallway traffic, "I'll probably see you at lunch."

"Probably." I agreed as she waved and headed down the hall, leaving me to trudge across to my brand new calculus classroom.

* * *

If Ms. Jennings had been apathetic, AP Calculus was a whole other story. First of all, calculus is my nemesis, calculus and I simply do not speak the same language. Second of all, unlike the uninterested Ms. Jennings, Mr. Kleine was one of those teachers who tried desperately to be cool. He demonstrated this by pulling me up to the front of the class and repeating the whole 'what's your favourite curse word' thing from Inside The Actor's Studio. Number one, it's ridiculously uncomfortable and inappropriate to ask your teenage students what turns them on, number two, it was pretty darn humiliating in front of a bunch of teenagers I had never met. It also had nothing to do with Calculus. Needless to say, I was feeling a little forlorn as I headed to my locker when lunch rolled around. By a sheer twist of fate, or possibly by Ms. Pillsbury's interference, Blaine was stuffing his books into the locker next to mine as I made my way over, pulling out the piece of paper with my locker combo out of my bag.

"Hey you!" he exclaimed as I trudged over to him and accepted the half hug he offered, slumping my head gracelessly onto his shoulder. This whole first day thing was harder than I had thought it would be. "Bad day?" he asked as I lifted my head and began to twiddle the dial on my lock to match the numbers on the paper in my hand.

"Not really, just Calculus." I explained, managing after a short struggle to pull open the sticky lock, opening the metal door and pulling my textbooks out of my bag. Blaine winced sympathetically; although he was a whiz at Calculus, I'd whined enough about the amount of sweat and tears it took for me to manage an A for him to understand exactly what I meant with that one word. I shook my head at the predictable state of his locker. After only two weeks it was already a mess of strewn paper, combs and textbooks. Oddly enough for someone who was so particular about his appearance, Blaine could make a mess faster than anyone I had ever met. 'This way, I know where everything is' was the age-old excuse I had heard a thousand times from him. Thank God Gigi had hired someone to come and clean the museum of a house we lived in.

"Did Kleine do that 'Inside the Actor's Studio' thing?" he asked as I rolled my eyes towards the ceiling and gave an emphatic nod, reliving the experience in my mind with distaste. He snorted as he forcefully shoved his books into his locker.

"Then I know your pain." he informed me. "Fear not, my dear sister, it is lunch time and you are coming to sit with your friends." He was sweet for trying to make me forget the horrors of calculus.

"Speaking of which, I met Tina in Physics class." I informed him as he tossed a pleased look my way and continued to wrestle with his locker.

"Cool! Tina's awesome." he exclaimed, grinning infectiously over at me. Really this day had not been at all bad so far, just a little overwhelming, and also Calculus. Blech. There was a very different pace here. We were silent as Blaine tried to keep the myriad of papers from falling out of his locker before slamming it shut and pumping his fist in the air triumphantly. I rolled my eyes as a smile stretched across my face at his antics. He was just so Blaine sometimes. Like, for instance the fact that I could tell he was working up the courage to ask me something as he stood silently beside my locker while I organised the textbooks inside. "Are you ok?" he asked finally, leaning against the closed door of his locker as I closed my eyes resignedly. I had known that the moment I told him about Everett he would ask after my well-being every five minutes. That was just the way he was. I sent him a look and crossed my arms, as he looked over at me, his eyes full of concern.

"I'm fine, Blaine." I exclaimed, frustrated as he held up his hands defensively.

"Ok then, just asking." I rolled my eyes and turned back towards my locker. "I'm just going to talk to my history teacher for a second and then I will be back to escort you to our table." he told me, looking over my shoulder at something behind me. "Or, hang on." he said a small smile on his face as he stepped around me and raised his hand in a wave. "Hey, Sam!" he half-shouted as Sam's blond head made its way down the hallway, stopping and turning at my brother's voice. "Can you walk Sage to the cafeteria?" Blaine asked as my face flushed bright red. I couldn't quite decide whether to hug him or hit him for this stunt.

"I don't need a keeper." I muttered, more to have something to say than anything else as Sam walked over, smile already in place. I had to bite my lip to keep from returning that smile way too enthusiastically.

"Sam doesn't mind, do you?" Blaine asked as I resisted the urge to kick him in the shins repeatedly.

"Of course not." Sam's smile had been directed almost exclusively at me during this whole exchange, sending Blaine only cursory looks as I blushed like the awkward person that I am. Blaine turned his back to Sam and waggled his eyebrows suggestively at me as he walked away. I was absolutely going to have to kill him for this later. "Well hello again." Sam said, startling me as he leaned against Blaine's locker.

"Well hello." I responded, closing my locker and clicking the lock closed. I could feel the feeling that had started coming into my chest whenever I saw him spreading through my body, creating a sort of electrified current. It was a little bit terrifying to be honest. I really needed to get a grip if I was going to act like a normal person around him.

"Shall we then?" he asked in the same voice he'd used this morning at my car. I blushed and looked at the ground, nodding slowly. This was sort of reminding me of the heart throb version of Everett.

"Sure" I said, my voice shaking a little as I told myself once again that everything pointed to Sam actually being this guy rather than pretending. My arm tingled a little as he used my elbow to propel me in the direction of the cafeteria. 'They aren't the same person.' I told myself as we walked together. Everett's manners had always had a bit of a sheen to them which, of course, I realized now; hind sight and all that.

"So how have you liked McKinley so far? It's probably way easier than your other school." Sam said as we walked down the hallway together, following the steady stream of students desperately rushing towards their daily feeding ritual. I'd heard it said that teenagers greatly resembled a herd of cattle. I could all of a sudden really see the merit in that comparison. I pushed my hair behind my ear absently as I thought about Sam's assumption about Burnham and Mckinley.

"Yes and no." I decided finally, "Calculus is just as horrible here as it was there." I narrowly avoided serious bruising as a meaty guy wearing some sort of jersey pushed against the crowd belligerently. Ugh, those were the kind of guys I was going to have to deal with on a regular basis if I made the cheerleading squad.

"I hate math." Sam agreed fervently. We were being largely ignored by the student body but I could see a small percentage of the girls staring after us, some with looks of mild curiosity, a few with looks of outright hostility. I gathered that intell a little smugly; I had to admit as Sam waxed poetic about the horrors of math. He was adorable and sweet and funny and he had chosen to walk me to lunch. My new girl status had to be dropping down into the fires of hatred for some of those staring girls but I really couldn't bring myself to care much. Making friends is, after all, the first step of integrating yourself into a new place and the fact that my new friend happened to be athletic and talented and beautiful and funny had nothing to do with anything. I reined my mind in harshly from where it had been smugly bounding off into happily-ever-after land again. I was getting carried away with the Sam thoughts yet again. We were just friends. That, plus the thought that after the whole Everett fiasco I didn't need anything more than a friend right now was a flashing neon sign that I nailed securely in front of my eyes to deter any more daydreaming. I was going to get a grip on this if it was the last thing I did.

"Watch it Needleman!" Sam exclaimed loudly as I almost ran headlong into yet another jerseyed guy walking in the opposite direction.

"It was my fault, sorry." I said, automatically as I silently berated myself for almost crashing into a random stranger. I had been pre-occupied because I had been firmly telling my brain to stop day-dreaming? Sometimes I wished that my brain was a little less ridiculous. I glanced up at the guy who flashed me a genuinely apologetic smile before walking away. Maybe teenagers weren't such a herd of cattle after all.

"You ok?" Sam asked as I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes. Yes it was sweet but I was really going to have to do something about this assumption that I was some kind of delicate flower.

"Oh yeah," I responded, making a show of being casual as I shrugged. "I'm small but I'm tough." I informed him. I glanced over at him, noting the small smile that had formed on his lips.

"Oh I know that." he stated as I silently raised my eyebrows in surprise. "I essentially body checked you into a sheet of metal on Friday and you picked yourself up and did a dance number." His assessment of my ability to bounce back was heartening in the midst of his heart-throb manners. It at least reinforced the idea that he was paying attention. He flashed me a smile again, it taking over his whole face as I barely kept myself from swooning like some teeny-bopper at a boy band concert.

"And don't you forget it." I stuttered after a second of trying to pull my mind back into coherence. For God's sakes, when did my brain become this hormonally ridiculous? He was still smiling softly to himself as we walked side by side, lapsing into a surprisingly comfortable silence.

"So other than the hated calculus, has everything else been good so far?" I pondered that for a moment as I gazed at the crowd through the double doors of the cafeteria. There were an awful lot of red and white skirts in there. That brought me crashing back down to earth.

"Ms. Pillsbury thinks I should try out for the Cheerios." Sam looked over at me in surprise as we pushed open the doors.

"Wait, really?" Blaine asked, ducking out from behind me as we entered the cafeteria. "Ms. Pillsbury thinks you should join the Cheerios? But you hated gymnastics" He said, echoing my thoughts from physics class as he led the way to what I assumed was the glee club table.

"I'm not really planning on doing it for fun." I informed him as we sat, Blaine taking the seat beside Kurt leaving three seats to the left of him available. I settled in the seat directly to his left as he pondered my comment and glanced over at Sam who took the seat on my other side.

"Ooh, coach Sylvester, have fun with that." Tina piped up as she and her boyfriend sat down across from us.

"I used to be a Cheerio and I had a lot of fun." Kurt added his piece to the conversation as he squeezed Blaine's hand. "Mostly."

"You promised I could see that uniform." Blaine muttered in an undertone that I obviously wasn't supposed to hear as Kurt laughed quietly. Oh God, there were suggestive eye brows involved in this conversation. I cleared my throat pointedly, startling Blaine and making them both blush a fairly fluorescent shade of fuchsia as yet more people sat down, each involved in their own separate conversation.

"Well, Ms. Pillsbury says it'll help with my Yale application so I'm going to try out." I told them determinedly. "It means I'll probably have to stay late tonight." I said to Sam. I could see Blaine nodding out of the corner of my eye, not realizing that I wasn't actually talking to him.

"That's ok." Sam said grinning at me. Blaine's head snapped up as he looked at us his eyes widening as a ridiculously annoying grin widened on his face. "I can wait." Great, now Blaine would make it his mission to pry into our budding friendship in order to return the embarrassment I had just provided to him. "I'll be back in a sec." Sam said as he stood up and walked to the counter. I nodded absently trying to restrain myself from laughing out loud as Kurt dug his finger nails into Blaine's hand to get him to shut up. Kurt was a total godsend in this situation.

"Sage!" a loud shriek that I had been expecting all morning had most of the cafeteria turning towards the door while none of the glee club members even bothered to look up from what they were doing.

"Hi Rach." I grinned as she sat on the other side of Sam's empty seat, clapping her hands together.

"Ow." Blaine muttered to Kurt after Sam was out of earshot, shaking his hand slightly.

"Why didn't you tell me you were transferring?" Rachel asked, smiling excitedly. "This is going to be so great!" I shook my head at her enthusiasm, marvelling at the fact that I was actually very happy to see her. She'd really won me over on Friday night.

"I wasn't positive yet." I said, holding up my hands to defend myself from her excitement. Sam dropped back into his seat with a tray full of just about everything he could possibly have taken, making me wrinkle my nose a little and wonder how on earth he managed to stay in good shape if he ate like that.

"I wasn't sure what you wanted, so I kind of got everything." He pushed the tray so that it was in between us and gestured for me to help myself. I was fairly sure that my jaw had dropped to the table top. He got me food? Was this guy completely perfect? A part of me was wondering if this was going to be a trend, him insisting on doing things for me that I could perfectly well do for myself. I was a strong independent woman, fully capable of opening my own door and carrying my own bag dammit. Still part of me couldn't help but be completely won over by him. Blaine reached over and helpfully closed my jaw for me, taking the advantage to smirk and elbow me so lightly that I'm sure no one except me would have noticed. It was a testament to how thrown I was by Sam that I didn't even send Blaine a dirty look, let alone a sarcastic comment of some kind.

"Thanks." I said quietly, trying to control my grin. I could hear the quiet conversations echoing around the table along with the loud catcalling of the football team and some argument about a video game at the table to our right. The cafeteria was actually a perfect example of what a different pool I was swimming in now. It was like a microcosm of relationships and high school experiences all in one loud, cold and slightly smelly room. It was kind of exciting, the idea that everyone had their own separate things happening all at once. Not that none of this stuff happened at Burnham, it wasn't like they were aliens there. It was just a different energy, more formal, less relaxed and unapologetic.

"So you know how I'm running for senior class president, right?" Kurt said as Blaine nodded silently, turning his attention towards him. "Well, Brittany's decided she's going to be my campaign manager." Wait, Brittany? Was that girl who kept talking about aliens and her cat's ecstasy addiction?

"Are you sure that's wise?" Blaine asked, taking a sip of his bottled water. Kurt shrugged. "She actually had some good points, surprisingly enough. I'll probably have to curb a lot of her slightly more insane ideas but," he paused leaning back in his chair, "I'm actually really excited."

"That's awesome dude." Sam piped up from beside me as Blaine nodded in agreement and smiled over at Kurt. It was going to take a while for me to get used to that, they way Blaine was around Kurt. It was weird. Good weird, but weird all the same. Rachel joined in on the conversation at that moment, informing Kurt of how much winning the student council elections would help his NYADA application. I could feel Sam leaning towards me and away from Rachel's diatribe and I certainly wasn't complaining.

"Sometimes, I just don't listen to her for a couple minutes." he stated quietly, surprising a laugh out of me "usually she's talking about the same thing when I start listening again." He was probably right about that. Even the little amount of time I had spent with Rachel defended that theory. "By the way," he said as I gave up on Kurt and Blaine's conversation and gave into myself, turning towards him. He was smiling at me again, which in itself wasn't all that surprising. What was surprising was that I didn't even care anymore that I couldn't seem to react like a normal person around him, "I'm continuing our question game." Oh god. I groaned dramatically as he rolled his eyes at my reaction. "Nah, you aren't getting out of it that easily." he informed me as I shook my head at him and resigned myself to more of the grilling that I had endured this morning.

"All right, fine then," I said jokingly, "what is to be the next torturous question?" Just being around him was fun, I realized as he pretended to ponder his question. We were silly and childish and having a better time than anybody in that cafeteria just talking quietly to each other. Forget all those other examples of high school experience, this topped the charts in my opinion.

"Ok, I've got one." he said shaking his hair out of his eyes as I motioned for him to continue. "What is the number one most played song on your iPod?"

"Your questions are lame Evans." I informed him teasingly as I pulled my iPod out of my bag to answer his question.

"Just answer the question, Anderson." he teased. I cringed at the song that had popped up at my query. "It can't be that bad." he said as I made a face at him.

"Mmmbop"

"By Hanson?" he asked incredulously, laughing loudly as I flushed and hid my face in my hands.

"It's a catchy song!" I exclaimed, in my own defence, raising my head from my hands and grinning up at him. "You try making a Motown album when you're twelve."

"I guess." he said, shaking his head slowly. That was another difference to add to the list that I certainly was not making in my head. There was no hint of derision at any of my answers. The fact that he wasn't laughing at me kept catching me by surprise.

"So what class do you have next?" Sam asked me quietly, breaking through my musing as the rest of our table found their own topics of conversation. I reached down to pull my schedule out of my bag.

"French." I informed him, sighing a little. Gigi had been speaking French with Blaine and I our entire lives which meant that French at Mckinley was probably going to be entirely boring.

"Me too!" Sam grinned as we sampled our lunch. Well, maybe there was a bright spot after all.

* * *

I managed to find my way to the gym without any help at the end of a very long day which I thought was extremely impressive if I did say so myself. Pretty much every person I knew at Mckinley including both Blaine and Sam were at glee practice so I was on my own waiting in a ridiculously long line with a bunch of girls in various forms of athletic clothing. I bit my lip nervously as I bounced in my borrowed sneakers. I had managed to borrow some black shorts and a red Mckinley t-shirt from Rachel so that I wasn't forced to try out for the cheerleading squad in a dress and ballet flats.

"Nervous?" a girl with dark blond hair glanced over at me sympathetically as I bounced manically. I took a deep breath and nodded silently my ponytail bouncing as I did. Her expression changed slightly to a small sneer as she gave me a subtle once over, taking in my hair, my clothes, and my entire person from head to toe. "Well, you've got that really shiny, cheerleader hair, so I'm sure you'll be a shoo-in." She said, turning back towards the front of the line as I stood silently, eyebrows raised at the girl's unexpected vitriol. Apparently I had been found wanting in some random test I hadn't known I'd had to pass. Okay then, I guess I wasn't going to count her as a friend. I stayed silent as the line moved a little bit, girl after girl coming out in various forms of despair ranging from the merely upset to the girls who were downright bawling. The girl in front of me sighed as we both reached the front of the line, turning back towards me.

"I'm sorry. I'm kind of a bitch when I'm nervous. I don't mean to be." I nodded slowly as her hostile gaze changed completely to an apologetic one. It sort of seemed as if I was meeting her second personality or something. "I'm Alice Carlysle." She held out her hand as I shook it warily, unsure of exactly what to think of this girl. She seemed nice enough now.

"Don't worry about it." I said finally, deciding to shake off the odd act of hostility and take her offered hand as she gave me a friendly smile, "I'm Sage Anderson." she smiled again before crossing her arms against her chest and glancing at the closed gym doors through which we could hear a woman shouting directions.

"You just transferred right?" she asked suddenly, turning back towards me as she pulled her blond hair into a high ponytail on her head, mirroring the hairstyles of the rest of the girls still waiting behind us. I nodded mutely. "I think I saw you in my French class today. God, I hate that class." I raised my eyebrows in surprise. That class had been ridiculously easy, especially compared to the AP classes I'd had for the rest of the day. It had also been the most fun class by far. Although, granted that probably had more to do with fact that Madame Maxine had sat me between Sam and Blaine who had spent the entire class exchanging jokes back and forth. "What, you like it?" she asked, her voice disbelieving as she took in the small smile that had spread across my face as I thought of Sam's surprisingly accurate impression of Madame Maxine.

"Well, I have a bit of an unfair advantage." I explained as she cocked her head to one side and looked at me questioningly "My mother was French, so my brothers and I are pretty much fluent." She let out a deep breath, blowing at the bangs hanging on her forehead as I scuffed my toe against the linoleum floor.

"Then you are very lucky, I'm awful." she laughed as yet another girl left the gymnasium crying. I paused as we stood in silence.

"Well, if you ever need help, I'd be happy to." I said, hoping that I wasn't going to offend her or anything. It was only my first day; I wasn't all that interested in making enemies. She stood with her face still pointing towards the gym door.

"What like tutoring?" she asked, keeping her voice neutral.

"I was talking more like just hanging out." I said honestly as she turned her face back towards me, a smile spreading across it. Her menacing demeanour completely disappeared when she smiled.

"That'd be cool."

"Carlysle." she jumped as the voice that had been beckoning victims forward for the past hour called her name.

"Here," she said, holding out her phone, "Put your number in." I nodded and took it from her hand. "Wish me luck." she sent me a theatrically nervous look, complete with wide eyes and a grimace before she pulled open the large metal door of the gym. I entered my phone number into her contacts, wondering for a split second whether it was smart to give this girl my number when I barely knew her.

"Hey!" I smiled as I recognized the voice calling me from down the corridor. I turned around and watched Sam, Blaine and Kurt walk down the hall towards me, each of them lugging a school bag. "Still waiting?" Sam asked as they reached me, Blaine offering me a bright smile.

"I'm next." I said, my nervousness seeping into my voice a little.

"You'll be great, S, don't even worry about it." Blaine said, leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

"Yeah, you'll totally be great." Sam added as Alice burst out of the gym with Santana. 'I made it!' She mouthed with a huge smile on her face as Santana breezed past the rest of the line. I handed Alice her phone as she passed me, silently freaking out a little bit as I sent a thumbs up her way. If they took Alice did that mean they weren't taking anybody else? 'I'll call you.' she mouthed, miming a phone with her hand and holding it to her ear before turning around to follow Santana. Kurt gave me a searching look as I stared after Alice and Santana, my nervousness increasing exponentially by the second. I glanced down at the hand that had suddenly attached itself to mine and gazed over appreciatively at Blaine who squeezed lightly and nodded reassuringly at me, silently informing that I would be absolutely fine. He was right. Ten years of doing something five days a week, even something I didn't particularly like was bound to create at least a somewhat proficient gymnast in me. A moment or so later, Santana returned throwing another glare, this time one that was obviously aimed at Blaine who rolled his eyes as she pulled open the gym doors and stalked inside.

"Anderson!" a loud voice called from the recesses of the gymnasium, making my heart jump into my throat. Ok, so I had never thought of becoming a cheerleader, I had never particularly wanted to be a cheerleader but this could really help my chances at getting into Yale and was therefore ridiculously important. I glanced over at the boys the three of them sending me encouraging smiles. I nodded at them and rubbed my hands together, feeling suddenly cold in Rachel's shorts as I walked into the gym. The lighting was oddly dramatic with one light flooding a table where the woman I assumed was Coach Sylvester was sitting silently flanked by two other cheerleaders. Was everything that happened in this school ridiculously dramatic? "Who are you?" she asked loudly as I made my way to the centre of the gym into the spotlight shining on the gym floor.

"Sage Anderson." I said, surprised about how clear my voice was.

"I've never seen you in my life. Were you a fatty last year?" I had been warned about coach Sylvester but I was still a little taken aback by her blunt question.

"I just transferred." I said, trying to keep my voice steady and brassy. I had a feeling that the way to deal with Sue Sylvester and earn her trust was to fight fire with fire.

"I'm bored." she informed me loudly as a somewhat familiar snort sounded from beside her. My gaze zeroed in on Santana who I'd forgotten was the head cheerleader. My questioning was interrupted as Coach Sylvester started firing gymnastics combinations at me. As quickly as I could successfully finish one backflip, she was asking about a toe touch, an arabesque, a triple pirouette, quizzing me about my dance history which, luckily I had some of. That was probably an explanation for why Blaine had a serious problem with jumping onto furniture when he was singing. She was barking insults about my turn out, form corrections, and about anything she could possibly find issue with. I wasn't exactly landing on my head but even I had a sinking suspicion that I was really rusty. "Stop, Stop, Stop!" she exclaimed finally, my stomach twisting into a knot as I stopped in the middle of the floor, panting slightly as my heart pounded wildly from the exertion. She was going to laugh me out of the gym. "While I'm extremely disappointed that you didn't fall on your head, I have never been more bored than I am right now." I clenched my hands convulsively, trying not to give off waves of despair. I would have to come up with a new plan for Yale, then. "Although you look like you should be heading back to your hometown of the shire at any moment you are one of the least awful choices I could make." I tried not to roll my eyes at the Hobbit comment and instead focused on the 'least awful' comment. From what I had witnessed during this try out, that was almost a compliment from Sue. "Becky, get stumpy here a uniform. Sandbags, tell these other cretins that they are free to choose whatever method of ending their miserable existence that is most appealing to them." With that, Sue Sylvester pushed her chair over and stomped out of the gym. I made it? Seriously? I made it? Jumping up and down would probably be really childish but dear god did I want to. Holy Crap I was a Cheerio.

The shorter blond Sue had called Becky stalked off towards the doors, "I'm not stopping for you Stumpy, so follow me." I stared after her for a minute before rushing to catch up to her retreating form, brushing past Blaine who still standing outside the gym waiting for me. I meant this in the least awful way possible but I was surprised that a girl with down's syndrome was the co-captain of the Cheerios given the way Sue seemed to pick the most offensive nicknames for everyone she came into contact with. I followed Becky to what I assumed was Sue Sylvester's office given the number of pictures of herself smiling from the walls. Seriously, if these hadn't have been pictures of herself she would have looked like seriously dangerous stalker material, as it was, she was obviously the most narcissistic woman on the planet. Becky pulled a red and white uniform from a drawer and slammed it into my outstretched hands roughly. "If you get in my way, I will cut you." she said slashing her finger across her throat before walking out of the room and leaving me alone. I stood dumbfounded at the small girl's threat. Was everyone in this town completely crazy? I wondered as I turned towards the full trophy cabinet. I ran my hand over the red lettering on the uniform as I stared at those trophies. That was why I was doing this; Yale was why I was doing this. It was sort of like a mantra to keep me sane.

* * *

"Sage, come on!" I could hear Blaine's patience starting to wear as his voice filtered in from outside the girls' bathroom. To be fair I had been staring at myself in disbelief for at least ten minutes now. As I looked at myself in the mirror and adjusted my ponytail I made a face at my ridiculously perky reflection. There was something supremely wrong the picture of me in a cheerleading uniform. I traced the red lettering emblazoned across my chest, screwing up my face in the mirror. I'd only been at Mckinley for a day and they'd already branded me as their own. Also, I was deliberately wearing sneakers; it was like my own personal dimension of hell.

"It's a cheerleading uniform, it's not like we haven't seen one before!" Kurt exclaimed. I sighed and glared at the door, despite the fact that they couldn't see me. I was having an existential crisis in here and they were trying to rush me through it. I stared at myself for another minute before turning and pushing the door open and stepping into the hallway.

"I have a serious problem with this." I stated as Blaine pushed himself off the wall. I stood uncertainly with my arms crossed tightly against my chest, shifting from foot to foot as Sam and Kurt moved closer to where Blaine was standing.

"First of all, uncross your arms." Kurt said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and pulling my arms away from my chest, allowing the WMHS lettering to be completely out in the open. That was the part of the stupid uniform that I had the most issues with. The short skirt didn't bother me all that much and although it was polyester, I could deal. It was the branding that bothered me the most. "So what's the problem?" he asked, crossing his arms and sending me a playful glare. I bit my lip, running through all the excuses in my head and coming up empty in terms of any that I could actually articulate.

"I just can't rock a ponytail." I finished lamely as Blaine snorted loudly. "I also hate these letters, I feel like grade A meat." Kurt laughed and shook his head at my outburst. It was a perfectly reasonable concern, I wasn't interested in being one of a crowd.

"I think you look nice." Sam said quietly from behind Kurt and Blaine. I could feel my face flushing as Blaine rolled his eyes and shook his head, laughing under his breath.

"You do look great." Blaine agreed after a moment as he walked up to stand next to Kurt. I sighed and placed my hands on my hips. "Also, You are not grade A meat." He said, rolling his eyes, presumably at my terminology. I shook my head, still completely unsure about this idea. "You're doing this for Yale." he reminded me, raising his eyebrows playfully. I sighed and dropped my arms.

"Yale." I murmured to myself before sighing and allowing Blaine to link his arm through mine and forcefully pull me down the hall.

"Just do me a favour?" he asked as the four of us walked down the hall towards the front door.

"What?" I asked warily. He was sounding far too smug for my liking.

"Can I get a little 'Be Aggressive' B-E Aggressive', Ow!" he exclaimed loudly rubbing the spot on his shin where I had angrily kicked him. Kurt and Sam burst out laughing from behind us as we pushed open the large glass doors of Mckinley. In my next life I was officially having no brothers.

* * *

"So, I can drive you home if you want." I informed Sam as I pulled up into my driveway, taking the keys out of the ignition and turning towards him as he grabbed his bag from the backseat where he'd thrown it. He paused and glanced at me with an oddly frozen smile on his face.

"That's ok." he responded rubbing the tips of his fingers in an absent circle against his left palm. "I'll just walk." I stared confusedly at him as he unhooked his seatbelt and opened the passenger's side door, pulling himself out as I hurried to grab my bag and follow suit.

"Are you sure?" I asked, hovering awkwardly by my open door as he slammed his own shut, sending that same frozen smile my way across the silver expanse of car roof stretching out between us. He nodded quickly and pulled at a loose thread from the fraying pocket of his backpack before pushing his arms through the straps.

"Yeah, uh, I'll see you tomorrow morning, though?" he asked. That smile was thankfully gone as he glanced hopefully at me.

"Yeah, sure." I said uncomfortably, furrowing my eyebrows at the awkward turn to our conversation. I watched him blankly as he waved and walked down the sloping driveway, turning onto the street and walking out of view. I shivered a little at the breeze and turned around, walking slowly towards the door and pulling out my house keys. Blaine would probably be with Kurt for a good hour so I let myself in and made my way slowly up towards my room. I had an American history paper and a bunch of physics work to catch up on but ten minutes later I found myself lying on my bed chewing on the back of a pen with a blank notebook sitting in front of me having done nothing so far other than writing my name in neat letters in the left hand corner of the page. It was kind of obvious after today that Sam didn't want me seeing where he lived or meeting his family. What I couldn't wrap my head around was why.

"Why don't you just use your computer like a normal person?" Blaine asked from the doorway as I dropped the pen and glanced up at him in surprise. "Oh right," he continued, sauntering into my bedroom slowly, "because you're afraid of computers." I rolled my eyes as he motioned for me to move over and stretched out across the bed; his feet uncomfortably close to where my head was resting at the end of the bed.

"I am not scared of computers. I just think we use them far more than we should, what's wrong with paper?" I asked absently, picking up my pen and tucking it behind my ear, propping myself up on my elbows and looking towards the head of the bed where Blaine was lounging across my pillows. "No Kurt tonight?" I asked, as he ran his hands obsessively through his hair. He shrugged.

"He's at Brittany's working on campaign posters." his voice sounded more than a little sceptical as I snorted.

"I shudder at the thought." I said absently as I reached over towards my arm chair and grabbed a cushion, stuffing it under my head and returning my gaze to the ceiling. "He's worrying about NYADA isn't he?" I asked as Blaine hummed affirmatively.

"He's always worried about NYADA." I stared speculatively at the ceiling as he sighed to himself. "Santana got kicked out of glee club," he stated after a minute. "something about setting the piano on fire during my number."

"I'd say arson is a decent reason for getting kicked out of a club." I reflected, my eyes narrowing at the ceiling as I remembered Blaine's account of that particularly lovely moment. "That explains the glares she was sending your way." There had been a crazy amount of glares during those cheerleading tryouts.

"No," he disagreed. "That's just Santana." I snorted appreciatively

"Fair enough." I stated as we lapsed into silence. My mind had immediately returned to the dilemma of Sam's awkwardness over me driving him home.

"What's up with you?" Blaine asked, startling me out of my minute inspection of the ceiling. "I thought you'd be bouncier."

"Bouncier?" I propped myself up on my elbows and sent him a questioningly look as he laughed softly and pushed at my feet. I grabbed a shirt near my head and tossed it at him, dropping back on to the bed as he caught it easily and threw it onto the floor.

"You know what I mean." he insisted. "Everything ok on the ride home?" What an interesting question. He was doing that irritating being perceptive thing again, I thought as I sighed and bit my lip.

"Do you think there's a reason Sam doesn't want me to know where he lives?" I asked, pulling the pen out from behind my ear and chewing on the cap again nervously. Maybe he was ashamed? Embarrassed? Maybe he had super protective parents who he didn't want to expose me to? "Am I being too dramatic?" I asked out loud as Blaine's long silence drew my attention. I sat up and looked over at where he had risen to his elbows, an uncomfortable look on his face. "What?" I demanded, eager to know at least something and stop the endless speculating.

"Sam's living situation isn't exactly normal." he said slowly as I waited for him to continue.

"Well our living situation isn't normal either." I insisted baffled as he shook his head and ran his hands through his hair nervously. He sent me a pointed look as I waited impatiently for him to elaborate.

"I'm pretty sure you haven't told him everything though, have you? About Mom? Dad? Cooper, even?" I sighed and dropped back down to my cushion.

"No." I admitted crossly. I hadn't felt all that comfortable delving into the more difficult realities of our life. It was sort of, mildly, understandable if Sam had his own difficult subjects.

"I mean, I could tell you what I know, but I only know what Kurt's told Me." his voice was completely honest as I groaned in frustration and raked my hands over my face.

"No." I said finally. "I should wait for him to decide if he wants to tell me."

"I agree." Blaine stated immediately. I rolled my eyes at him and his opinions. I absolutely hated it when he was right.

"Gee, thanks." I said sarcastically, pushing his feet off the bed. "Your feet smell." I explained, ignoring his protest as I turned back to my homework resignedly. I might as well get something done before I got even further behind.


	5. Chapter 5

Here we go with another chapter. I know the waits between these have been long but life has been kicking my ass recently. I'm finally done the semester though, so hopefully the updates will come faster during the summer. Thank you to all the new followers :) I'm really happy you're all interested in the story! As always, any comments, suggestions, whatever, please feel free to review, reviews are love and hugs and fresh cookies. Much love to my sister and beta emmalinaloo (who recently changed her pen name) who makes my grammar decent and my sentences full.

**Disclaimer: I do not own, I only love.**

There were two things that I had decided about being a part of the cheerios by the time lunch rolled around on Wednesday afternoon. Number one: flames in general should have absolutely nothing to do with high school sports. Number two: Coach Sylvester was evil incarnate.

This morning had sort of felt like going down the rabbit hole and emerging in some alternate universe where I was participating in things that I wouldn't have done last week for a million dollars. First of all, my alarm clock had rung at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am. I had been told by a fairly hostile Becky the previous day that coach Sylvester had called a mandatory 6:30 am workout and practice and so I dragged myself out of bed and blindly put on my cheerleading uniform. Blaine, being the supportive brother that he was had gotten up with me, ostensibly to wish me luck and calm my nerves while in reality he didn't do much more than lean against the wall yawning loudly. The gesture would have been far more appreciated if he hadn't finished all the coffee before I had come downstairs. As in all the coffee we had in the house.

Needless to say I was feeling far from miss Mary Sunshine as I pushed open the door to the locker room. I was quickly coaxed onto one of a long line of stationary bikes with coach Sylvester hovering around myself and the fifty or so other cheerios like a vulture circling dead meat. She helpfully provided all of us with a water bottle full of what she called her "power mix" which I had quickly set aside after being told that the main ingredients were sand and laxatives. After forty-five minutes of feeling like my legs were turning into jello the real work began. I had never been to a bootcamp or anywhere near an army base but if movies were anything to go by, Coach Sylvester's Cheerios practice had a whole lot in common with preparing to enter an enemy war zone. I had a distinct feeling that Coach Sylvester was trying to weed out those who couldn't handle it from those who would end up being a championship winning squad. I meant to make it my mission to stay on that squad.

My morning classes had been an exercise in keeping myself awake. I was not a morning person to begin with and a 5:30 am wake up call followed by 2 hours of physical exertion had left me pathetically deciding that climbing Everest couldn't be as hard as staying awake. Also, a caffeine addict lacking her daily caffeine fix is a sorry excuse for a human being. By the time my last period before lunch had rolled around I had resorted to pinching myself every ten seconds in order to stay relatively alert. I barely even remembered the moments that had led me from my American History classroom to the cafeteria, although I had a vague impression that I should be impressed that I had found the cafeteria at all. I stared at the unidentified lunch meat on the plate in front of me and poked at it listlessly, barely able to keep my head upright.

"You look fantastic." Blaine joked sarcastically as he sat down across from me with Kurt predictably by his side. I glared at him, muttering darkly under my breath. Stupid useless brother.

"You're not my friend anymore." I informed him scrunching my nose at him and sticking out my tongue. He snorted and rolled his eyes as the table filled up around us with the rest of the New Directions, Rachel automatically claiming one of the seats beside me.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I drank all the coffee." he said "What if I buy you more?" I turned my glance back to Blaine and shook my head.

"You can't buy my love."

"I can if it's a Venti Triple Americano."

"Extra dry?"

"Extra dry." he confirmed as my mouth watered at the thought. I shrugged, pushing my unappetizing lunch away from me as Sam sat down beside me.

"Fine. When you provide said beverage, and only when you provide said beverage, we can be friends again" I stated smiling sweetly as he laughed from across the table.

"What did you do?" Sam asked my brother, watching our exchange with fascination. "Hi." he said in an undertone, smiling widely at me as a beaming smile spread across my face, giving me the vague appearance of a jack-o-lantern. Cheerleading practice had robbed me of my ride with Sam this morning and I actually found that I had missed him.

"Hi." I responded, ignoring the fake retch that Blaine tried to cover up with an equally fake sounding cough.

"He drank all the coffee." Kurt said absently as he stared dejectedly at the table top, a big black cloud hanging ominously above his head. Blaine looked just as confused at Kurt's mood as I was which meant that whatever it was, Kurt wasn't sharing. I shrugged at Blaine's hopeless look.

"What happened to your arm?" Sam asked suddenly, grabbing my reddened arm and pushing up the sleeve of my cheerios jacket. I winced as the cuff pulled against a particularly tender spot.

"I fell into the ring of fire." I informed him as Blaine leaned over the table to examine my arm with Sam.

"It went down down down and the flames went higher." Mike sang lightly earning a glare from Sam as he examined my arm.

"What?" I asked, looking confusedly at Mike, who shook his head and tried to hide his grin from a very serious looking Sam who was gingerly shifting my arm to see where the burn wrapped around onto the pale skin of my forearm. Sam glanced up at me momentarily, the look in his eyes over-the-top worried.

"I'm fine." I told both he and Blaine hovered over me like mother hens. Kurt was still staring dejectedly at his lunch, pushing the contents of his plate around and around until it was a pile of brown mush dribbling off of his fork. "Is everything OK, Kurt?" I asked, deciding to completely ignore the boys hovering over me. That at least got Blaine's attention away from my arm although I didn't think I was going to get Sam to stop. Kurt's head snapped up at the sound of his name as Rachel shifted uncomfortably beside me. Kurt glanced momentarily in her direction before shrugging and returning his gaze to his plate. Rachel was being unusually silent as she quietly took a bite of her lunch and stared at Kurt across the table.

"I'm so sorry Kurt." she said quietly as Kurt shook his head at her and gave her a halfhearted smile. "I shouldn't have laughed."

"I don't blame you." he said, smiling tightly. Rachel didn't say anything as she returned to staring at her lunch silently. Blaine was gazing worriedly at Kurt, placing his hand lightly on his boyfriend's back. Sam was still doing something to my arm but I had long since stopped paying attention. This had to have something to do with West Side Story. The last I had heard, the two of them had been memorizing Romeo and Juliet for Kurt's second audition. I had no idea why Kurt was auditioning twice or why they were performing Romeo and Juliet instead of lines from West Side Story but the two of them had rushed past me talking in low and serious voices about iambic pentameter earlier this morning and I was at a bit of a loss trying to picture the situation in which Rachel would voluntarily laugh at Kurt's audition. There was an awkward silence as we all avoided looking at Kurt too much. All of us other than Sam who was still obsessing over my arm.

"How did the campaign posters go with Brittany last night?" I asked, hoping to change the subject to something lighter. If anything, Kurt's face looked even darker at that question and he let out a loud sigh, running his hands through his hair.

"I think I messed that up." he said as Blaine rubbed his back comfortingly. "Her posters were just so over the top and... just too gay."

"Well you are gay, dude." Sam said, finally looking up from my arm to be met with a table full of questioning looks in his direction. He held up his hands defensively. "I'm just saying that ever since I've met you, you've been totally cool with yourself." Kurt gazed at him speculatively. "I always thought you were really brave." It was kind of funny to see the effect Sam's speech had on the table. Blaine was gazing at him with a look of such gratitude you would have thought Sam had just saved his kitten from a tree. I looked on with interest as Kurt started to visibly perk up at Sam's pep talk. "You make a difference here Kurt." A smile had spread over Kurt's face. If you thought about it, this was a really great campaign strategy actually.

"Yeah, Kurt, you're an inspiration." Tina chimed in, Mike nodding in agreement as Kurt rolled his eyes, tossing a conflicted look at the group of people leaning in to the conversation.

"Kurt you know this whole embracing yourself thing is brilliant campaign wise." I said slowly as he glanced over at me.

"You should trust her," Blaine said, squeezing Kurt's shoulders "She's been in every student government since sixth grade." I rolled my eyes but had to admit that he was right. My overachieving past would brook no denial. It did, however, allow me to be able to provide insight to Kurt.

"It's true, and I'm saying this is brilliant. Really Kurt, you should just go for this. You're the candidate that represents a better future. That's what people want to vote for." I told him as he gazed at me sceptically.

"This is McKinley high school, Sage, 'the people' want to vote for whoever will make sure there's a new vending machine in the science hallway." I rolled my eyes at that as Kurt gestured demonstratively towards the students babbling around him.

"that's why you have to show them that they can have more." I insisted as Kurt snorted sarcastically.

"You sound like a public service announcement." he informed me with a pointed look as I rolled my eyes exasperatedly. Geeze, he was a tough sell.

"You know who makes public service announcements," Blaine piped up in my defence "politicians."

"Successful politicians." I added jumping on to Blaine's band waggon and grinning my cheesiest, most politician-y grin while Blaine gave him the thumbs. Between the two of us we made a damn good campaign poster.

"Ok, you two are officially scary together." Kurt mumbled staring at us as if we had each grown an extra head.

"They're right though, I'll vote for you and I'm pretty sure Sage and Brittany can get a lot of the cheerleaders on board, Artie can get the av geeks and the jazz band, Mike's got the academic decathlon kids... Between all of us, we cover a lot of the school" Sam said. I gazed at him in wonder as he inhaled about half of his sandwich. How on earth was he not choking on that? Kurt appeared to be thinking over our proposal as we all sat with baited breath, waiting for him to agree to the campaign strategy. He glanced over at Blaine's hopeful smile and sighed, finally allowing a grin to creep on to his face and allowed himself to relax into Blaine's grip just slightly.

"I guess I'll find Brittany and tell her to keep hanging posters." Sam let out a celebratory whoop as we all smiled and congratulated ourselves on a job well done. Rachel caught my eye as she smiled, mouthing a silent 'thank you'. I smiled back, happy that I had successfully cheered Kurt up. I didn't know what Rachel had done to contribute to Kurt's dark mood, but whatever it was, he seemed to have moved past it. Oddly enough as I sat there it felt good. It felt great, actually to be a part of helping Kurt. Sure, Rachel and I had bonded over Disney songs and Kurt and I over clothes but in that moment of us pulling together to help Kurt, as cheesy as it sounds, I felt like I was finally really starting to fit in here. Tina sent me a warm smile from across the table and Mike winked over at me knowingly as I gazed at the people surrounding me. It felt great to feel like I had some friends.

"You should go to the nurse though Sage." Kurt said suddenly his voice breaking through the good-natured conversation that had emerged after Kurt's announcement. Oh great, here we were again.

"I agree" Sam said quickly from beside me, ignoring the half-hearted glare I sent in his direction as he returned to examining the long burn on my arm. I didn't know exactly what he thought he was going to see, it wasn't like anything was changing. I pushed my jacket sleeve back over the burn and pulled my arm away defensively as the attention at the table turned towards me.

"I'm fine!" I insisted as first Tina, then Rachel came over to examine my arm.

"You shouldn't let any lasting injuries get in the way of your future career, Sage. You want to be a writer, an arm injury could really hinder you." I rolled my eyes as Rachel reclaimed her seat next to me. Of course Rachel would blow this up to affect my future career. In her over-imaginative mind this burn was probably leading to career failure, general poverty and an altogether substandard existence a la _Rent_ in which me and my rag tag bunch of friends would struggle to make ends meet while singing melodramatic songs about how much life sucked. I didn't bother mentioning the fact that a minor burn on my left arm wasn't likely to stop me from writing. Especially considering the fact that I was right handed.

"It doesn't hurt to make sure." Blaine stated in his most persuasive voice. The entire table was now staring at me.

"Fine!" I groaned and threw up my hands in defeat. It was probably easier to just go to the damn nurses office then try to convince them that nothing was wrong. "Somebody has to show me where the nurse's office is." I wasn't all that surprised that they all offered and so I was escorted to the nurses' office with my very own large and entirely unnecessary entourage, which scattered with a series of well wishes as soon as the bell rang. There was no way I was going to tell them that I found there display of affection kind of touching. I waved at Tina's departing figure as she walked down the hallway towards her classroom.

As I suspected, the nurse informed me that the burn was minor and nothing to worry about, making the 10 minutes that I sat in the nurse's office while she got burn cream and gauze particularly boring.

"Nothing seriously wrong, I hope." I glanced up at the pretty young teacher who had stopped by the door of the nurse's office.

"No, not really." I responded as she flipped her long brown hair off of her shoulder. "My friends are just overly concerned." The teacher nodded absently and walked into the nurse's office.

"You're lucky. Friends that will stand by you are rare. You should hold on to that." Her dark purple heels clicked against the ceramic floor as she walked across the room. "My name is Ms. Corcoran." she said as I adjusted the skirt of my uniform and swung my legs a little from where they hung off the gurney. I was surprised that a random teacher was so interested in a student at the nurse's office. A day and a half experience with the teachers at McKinley had not led me to expect such random interest.

"It's nice to meet you." I responded politely as she stood squarely in front of me, her arms crossed against her chest. The way she was staring was a little unnerving,like she was sizing me up. Maybe she was one of my teachers that I hadn't met yet. "I'm Sage-"

"Anderson, I know" she interrupted, smiling. It was a mark of how surprised I was that I didn't shake her hand or babble on about how much I loved McKinley or something equally ass- kissing and ridiculous. "I'm glad I ran into you Sage, is it all right if I call you Sage?" I nodded mutely. It was a lot better than Miss Anderson, that was for sure. Along with more than a few of the things that had happened at McKinley since last Friday, my encounter with Ms. Corcoran was definitely to be filed under weird, uncomfortable and unexplained. "I've been hired to start a new glee club here at McKinley." my eyebrows shot up as I gazed at her in surprise. Out of all the reasons I had thought she might have sought me out, a new glee club was not one of them. "I've been told that you're looking for an extra-curricular activity for your transcripts." She moved to lean against the desk in the middle of the room. A glee club that did not include Blaine, my brain was whirring at the thought. On the one hand, I would get my wish of not hanging on to Blaine. I would probably make my own friends, have my own circle here. Then again, a glee club without Blaine meant spending a lot less time with him and the rest of the new directions. Since last Monday in Ms. Pillsbury's office, something had shifted in the way I saw that club. It was no longer "Blaine's thing", a lot of those people were my friends too.

"I would love to Ms. Corcoran." I started slowly as she crossed her arms against her chest. "It's just that my friends and-"

"Your brother?" she asked, finishing my sentence again. Did this woman have a private investigator hired or something? I wondered as I nodded slowly. She certainly knew an awful lot about me. "Ms. Pillsbury filled me in on the details." she explained, walking slowly across the floor. "Look, Sage." she stated as I watched her from my perch. "this is a chance to be a part of something brand new. You and I can decide how this club is going to be run, what we are going to stand for. We can decide who we're going to be and what kind of impact we want to have at this school." She stopped directly in front of me and smiled for the first time since she had walked into the nurse's office. "Being a part of a different group doesn't mean that you're betraying your brother, or that you can't still be friends with the new directions, it just means that you're carving your own future instead of accepting what's handed to you. She walked slowly towards the door and sent me a final smile. "Just think about." she said before exiting the room. I could hear her heels clicking like a metronome as she walked down the hallway.

We could choose our own purpose. Her words kept echoing in my head like an obsessive mantra. I sat absently in the dim light of my American History classroom trying to follow along with the slide show about the civil war and not doing the best of jobs. I had paid so little attention in the first week of classes at McKinley that at this rate I was going to flunk out of high school before I even reached senior year. My pencil tapped lightly on my notebook as I stared blankly at the slides, writing down a general sketch of the notes, my mind still circling around and around the whole of my conversation with Ms. Corcoran. I could make my own mark here, be a part of my own thing. Something about that thought was just so enticing. I wondered how Blaine would react if I decided to join Ms. Corcoran's group, or how Sam would react. Would they be disappointed or indifferent? I would be a part of something brand new, have control of how the club was run.

"You know, with the bandage on your arm, you could always lie and tell Mr. Barton that you're in too much pain to pay attention."Tina whispered, leaning a little in her seat so that her voice was quiet enough for only me to hear. I grinned a little and stared resolutely at the projector with a new vigour.

"Shh, I'm extremely busy taking these very important notes." I whispered, scribbling down the word 'civil'. We were discussing the civil war after all, that word was bound to make my notes at least somewhat convincing. She glanced over at my page and snorted quietly at my contribution.

"That's obviously true considering we're studying the war of 1812, not the civil war." I glanced quickly up at the screen which held paragraphs upon paragraphs of writing. Dammit, I did see 1812 in there. I shook my head to clear pesky thoughts of glee clubs, I was really going to fail this class if I didn't start paying attention. "Look on the bright side," she continued as Mr. Barton droned on at the front of the class "You were only about 50 years off." I rolled my eyes and glanced over at her grinning face.

"Gee, very helpful, thanks." I joked as she laughed quietly and turned back to her notes. Tina wouldn't care, no way, I realized as I smiled over our little exchange. I wasn't in any glee club right now and had given no indication that I would eventually be joining one and yet here she was, totally willing to be my friend. There was no way that the people I had been getting closer to over the past week would abandon me all because I was going to be there competition. Except, perhaps, for Rachel and she would come around after a little while. The fact that she wouldn't be threatened by the idea of me taking her solos might actually be a good thing in her eyes.

When you came right down to it, this whole transfer to McKinley had been about finally choosing to live my life for me. It had been about getting out from under the Anderson thumb and making my own decisions, good or bad. Even if I totally bombed this whole year, made a mess of everything, even if Ms. Corcoran's glee club lost every competition, it still meant something because it was my decision. That counted for something in my book. I smiled to myself and turned my attention to the projector, copying down the notes about the war of 1812 and managing to stay focused for the remainder of the class period.

I rushed out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang, finally managing to find the classroom a random student had pointed me to. Ms. Corcoran was sitting at the desk, a bevy of musical notes written in stark white on the chalkboard behind her head as she read something from a paper sitting on the desk in front of her.

"Ms. Corcoran?" I called out, stopping at the door. I smiled to myself as her head popped up and glanced over at where I was standing just inside the door. '"I'll do it."

* * *

'Just say it Sage. Just say it, it isn't a big deal. He isn't going to care, Nobody is going to care.' I stared at the road ahead of me as I drove home from school, my hands clenched tightly against the steering wheel. Sam sat beside me talking cheerfully about glee club and the booty camp where he had shown off something he referred to as "white chocolate", whatever that was. It was a mark of how distracted I was that I wasn't laughing hysterically at his descriptions of Finn dancing. I was having a hard time keeping up with his conversation given the panicky conga line I had built up in my head without any kind of reason for doing so. I was panicking about Blaine's reaction, about Sam's, about losing the few friends I had managed to make. Basically, I was completely over reacting and being my overly dramatic, soap opera self. It was just a club for christ's sakes. I let out a shaky breath that I had been holding in. "I've decided to join Ms. Corcoran's glee club." I blurted, rudely interrupting a partial reenactment of Shuester shaking his head at Finn. I wiped my sweaty palms on the polyester material of my skirt as silence stretched abruptly across my car. I could see Sam's head swivel towards me in my peripheral vision as I kept my eyes determinedly on the road.

"Wait, are you serious?" he asked disbelievingly. It had started to rain a few seconds ago. Not hard enough to blur my windshield but enough to give our conversation a light staccato rhythm. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Sometimes it really felt like I had known him forever, like I had lived a lifetime in Lima. Other times I realized that I barely knew him at all.

"Yes I'm serious." I said as his face turned back to stare out at the windshield. I counted the raindrops echoing in the silence. One raindrop, two raindrops, three raindrops. He was sitting silently in the passenger's seat, his fingers tapping against his jeans, adding a second string of rhythm to accompany the rain.

"I don't understand." he said slowly. He didn't sound particularly angry or hurt or anything. Why would he be upset, it was just a club after all. "If you want to be in a glee club why don't you just join New Directions?" he sounded confused, like he couldn't quite fit the pieces together in his mind.

"I just... want to do my own thing." I mumbled, trying to explain it. I obviously wasn't doing a very good job. I had sort of prepared a speech that included everything that had been a part of me wanting to join Ms. Corcoran's group but I couldn't for the life of me remember how to articulate any of them. Ten raindrops, eleven raindrops. His tapping became more pronounced as he shifted further away from me in his chair.

"Are you upset about this?" I asked finally, registering the guarded expression on his face. I pulled up into my driveway and put the car in park, removing the keys from the ignition and turning in my seat to face him. He looked... hurt, there was no other way to describe it.

" Of course not." he muttered quickly, a little brusquely. "I'm just starting to see things a little more clearly here." his voice was strained, too controlled as I glanced over at him in shock, his body rigidly erect and staring out the front windshield unseeingly. He was actively avoiding looking at me, I realized as he scrubbed at a spot on his jeans. He shrugged a little too casually at the silently questioning look on my face. "I mean I didn't want to get in your way." an edge of bitterness crept into his voice that I hadn't heard before. It made him sound different. Where on earth had he come up with the idea that just because I wanted to join another glee club he was somehow unwanted in my life? It was a leap that I couldn't make any sense of. He huffed loudly and abandoned the spot on his jeans, choosing to return his gaze to the rainy weather outside of my car. "I wouldn't want you to miss out on

doing your own thing.' he raised his hands mockingly and finally looked directly at me. Hurt flashed in his eyes for an instant before descending into a bitter anger. This reaction was completely unnecessary, unprovoked and irrational. His whole attitude was staring to piss me off. Where did he get off acting like I was doing something wrong, like I had taken advantage of him? I took a slow steadying breath, trying to calm the rising anger I could feel taking over as I spoke, colouring my voice.

"I'm the one who started these rides, Sam." I announced, my eyes narrowing as he looked out the passenger's side window, turning completely away from me. My anger flared even more as he shrugged nonchalantly, his back still closing me off . "Contrary to your obvious beliefs," I said, hotly, my voice rising a few octaves. " I am capable of doing things for myself." he turned back towards me, his eyes outraged, his mouth open in shock. I was past the point of thinking clearly. If he was going to be ridiculous and irrational, then fine. "I don't need you to carry me over puddles." I continued tumbling quickly through the sentence, gaining momentum with each word. "I don't need you to hold doors for me or defend my honour and I most certainly don't need you telling me what I can and cannot do." The rain had picked up as we sat there, a complete, angry cliche beating against the windows. "If I really didn't want to see you Sam, I wouldn't use a stupid club to tell you." My heart raced in my chest, my breath coming out in pants of exerted energy as he gaped silently for a few wordless seconds.

"I guess I don't really know you." he said finally, his voice harsh as I laughed mirthlessly at his echo of my earlier thoughts.

"No, you obviously really don't." I agreed bitterly. He snatched his bag from the back seat with sharp movements. I would have been worried about him breaking my car if I wasn't so focused on how much of a jerk he was being.

"I'm walking home then," he announced loudly, struggling with the door for a moment before roughly pushing it open.

"Yeah, don't let me drive you home or anything." I retorted, unable to resist that last parting shot

"Fine, I won't." he exclaimed, pulling his bag across his shoulders and pushing himself out of the car.

"Fine!" I yelled back as he slammed the door shut and stomped angrily down the driveway, his jacket pulled up over his head as a shield against the rain. It was absolutely pouring down. The idiot should have let me drive him home, I thought, a stab of guilt breaking through my anger. I shook my head angrily and pushed my door open. He was the one who had been acting like a jerk. I locked my car door behind me and rushed towards the house, the rain soaking me within five seconds.

I slammed the heavy oak door, taking a perverse pleasure in the way it made the walls of the foyer shake ominously. Throwing my backpack on the ground, I struggled out of my wet jacket and tossed it to join the wet and crumpled heap on the floor.

"I hope he gets pneumonia." I muttered darkly as I stomped into the media room and threw myself onto the couch. All I wanted at that moment was to turn on friends or some other sitcom and watch someone else's problems . The remote basket was predictably empty, making our complicated entertainment system relatively useless. Of course I couldn't find the remote, I could never find the stupid remote.

"Blaine" I yelled angrily as I tore through the couch cushions. I knew he was home, he'd come straight home after his audition. "Blaine!" I yelled again, throwing a cushion out of my way.

"You screeched?" he asked, barely catching a cushion that had narrowly missed his head. I glared angrily and threw my hands in the air.

"What the hell is the point of having a basket to keep remotes in if you never do?" I turned away from him and threw another cushion aside, not unearthing even the hint of a remote. "Seriously, I am drowning in your crap Blaine and I can't take it anymore." Blaine was now leaning against the door frame surveying the mess I had created with raised eyebrows as I raged. He pushed himself off of the door frame casually and sauntered into the room, my hackles rising even more from the calm and collected way he was taking my tantrum. He reached down and plucked the remote I had been looking for from the coffee table and silently held it out to me.

I stared at his expectant look for a moment. Great, now aside from feeling angry, hurt and a little bit guilty I could add feeling stupid to my list too.

"Thanks." I muttered snatching it from his hand and dropping back onto the couch. Blaine didn't say a word as he went around the room, replacing the cushions I had thrown around in my search. I switched the tv on and managed to find an old episode of Will and Grace to distract me from feeling sorry for myself. Yelling at Blaine had probably been a little uncalled for. The anger that had me raging and tearing apart the media room was starting to dim and I was starting to feel more than a little guilty about snapping at him. Not to mention about wishing Sam would get pneumonia. That wasn't one of my finest moments. I jumped as a crack of thunder enveloped the house. He really should have let me drive him home, at least in this weather. Surely, his embarrassment of me wasn't greater than his sense of self-preservation. Just like that I could feel my mood going south again. I crossed my arms sourly, bitterly remembering our final remarks.

Blaine finished replacing the cushions and sat down beside me, his attention turned towards whatever was happening on the screen. The argument the two characters were having was starting to feel a little too close to home. I sighed and rubbed my hands over my eyes as Will and Grace screamed at each other on my screen.

"This is the worst episode ever." I exclaimed angrily crossing my arms against my chest and leaning back into the soft cushions. 'So that's what you really think of me?' Grace asked Will as I shifted uncomfortably. Blaine glanced over at me, eyebrows raised as I glared at the screen in front of me. "They're best friends, they aren't supposed to fight." I insisted as he glanced back at the screen, clearly confused by my outburst.

"You don't even like this show." Blaine looked over at me as I groaned and pulled roughly at my ponytail, tearing out the hairband and letting my damp hair tumble around my face. It was a mark of how irritated I was that I didn't even care that the rain had created a cloud of ringlets around my head. I sighed and dropped my feet onto the ground.

"Talk?" I asked in a small voice, feeling immediately relieved when Blaine wrapped an arm around me and let me drop my head on his shoulder. He squeezed my arm comfortingly and reached towards the remote, turning the screen off and replacing it on the table. We sat in silence for a minute, a hundred things running through my head. Was I being stupid and mean joining this club? I bit my lip apprehensively as he waited patiently for me to figure out exactly where to start.

"What would you say if I told you I've decided to join Ms. Corcoran's glee club?" I asked as I absently played with one of the folds of my skirt. I braced myself a little, half expecting Blaine to freak out over the question. Unexpected freak outs were apparently the reaction to this question. I felt Blaine shrug his shoulders as I stared at the red polyester of my uniform.

"I would say I hope you have fun and I'm glad you've found something you want to do." I glanced up at him, trying to detect any hint of sadness or anger in his eyes at he shrugged again. He looked... normal.

"So you aren't mad about that?" I asked, tucking a piece of hair still wet from the rain behind my ear. "That I'm joining a rival glee club?" He gave me an odd look as I leaned forward and rested my elbow on my knees, placing my chin in my hand and tilting my head sideways so I could see his reaction.

"Why would I be mad about that?" he questioned, his face completely perplexed as I shrugged and gazed at the blank screen. I had no idea why he would be angry about it, he was better asking Sam if he wanted pointers. He leaned forward to where I was taring at the tv screen and reached out, squeezing my shoulder again. "Sage, what is this about?" he asked as I sighed.

"Sam." I muttered, trying to ignore his immediate nod of recognition. "He totally freaked, acted like I was doing it so that I didn't have to hang out with him." Blaine scoffed as I shrugged angrily. I had a desperate desire to throw a pillow at Sam's stupid blond head. Guys claimed that girls were hard to read? Blaine didn't look nearly as confused as he should have, I decided, noting the oddly tight look on his face. Was he- was he trying not to smile? I gave him an incredulous look as he lost the battle, a snort escaping him as his shoulders shook from the effort of trying not to laugh. He obviously didn't understand the situation, I thought as I disbelievingly watched him try desperately to get rid of the smile on his face. Sometimes I really wanted to hit him, I decided as I humphed angrily and turned away from him and his stupid smiley face.

"You're supposed to be comforting me here." I muttered towards the wall as he snickered loudly and obnoxiously.

"I'm sorry S, it's just so obvious." he exclaimed, placing his hands on my shoulders and forcibly turning me around. I scowled at his easy smile and crossed my arms.

"Enlighten me then." I demanded, grabbing a cushion and hugging it to my chest as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh my god, Sage, he likes you." he said as if I were very slow on the uptake. I groaned and covered my face with the cushion, crossing my arms tightly against it.

"Not this again!" I exclaimed, my voice muffled as I spoke into the cushion.

"No, listen." he insisted, pulling my arms off the pillow. This was his brilliant advice? This was what was going to help me make sense of Sam's outburst? I raised an eyebrow and gave him my best bitchy glare to little effect from Blaine. "He likes you, you spend a ton of time together and he thinks things are going well, then you suggest that, instead of joining the club that he and most of your friends are in, you want to join the glee club that has no members and will basically consist of you and a very tone deaf girl for the foreseeable future. Did you actually tell him any of the reasons you want to join Ms. Corcoran's club?" I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and picked at the pillow in my lap.

"I told him I wanted to do my own thing." I mumbled as he rolled his eyes and threw up his hands in exasperation.

"That's it? No wonder he thought you were trying to blow him off." My face flushed red as I stared determinedly at the cushion. Alright, when he put it that way, it did sort of sound a little bit like a dismissal. I shook my head angrily at that thought.

"It has nothing to do with him." I insisted firmly. "Why would I want to blow him off, I'm not exactly being subtle here. I think I'm being pretty obvious about the fact that I like him." I glanced up at Blaine who had the good grace not to gloat over the fact that I'd just admitted to liking Sam.

"That's exactly it!" he exclaimed "he probably thinks that he's been reading all the signs wrong and you're just too polite to tell him to back off." He shrugged as I stared at him, dumbfounded. "He's upset and he's embarrassed and he lashed out." I could see it. All of a sudden I could put myself where Blaine claimed Sam was. I knew how it felt to feel like an idiot and to feel like you had made a complete and total fool of yourself. I groaned and placed my head in my hands, all of it crashing down on me as I thought about how quiet he had been at first, how hurt and angry he had looked after I had said the words 'doing my own thing'. I bit my lip and rubbed a tired hand over my eyes, These boys were just way too confusing for me.

"So what do I do then?" I asked finally. From where I stood, Sam and I had said some not-so-nice things to one another. He was one of the best things that had happened in Lima, I didn't particularly want it to be over, Whatever 'it' was or turned out to be. Especially not over something as stupid as this. Blaine shrugged.

"Text him, I'm sure it will blow over." he shrugged as if this was the easiest and most obvious solution possible. Text him, as simple as that, after a huge blow out and letting him walk home in a thunder storm and saying something snotty about him not letting me drive him home. Text him. Ugh, for once, Blaine was not helping. I shook my head quickly and raked my fingers through my hair.

"I don't want to talk about me anymore." I exclaimed as I let out a loud breath of air. "how was your audition?"he shrugged and gave me a small smile.

"They asked me to read for Tony." he said quietly, leaning back against the couch cushions. I threw myself into excitement for him, both genuinely thrilled that it had gone well and relieved to be feeling something other than dejection.

"Oh my god, B!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands and bouncing up onto my knees to face him. "That's amazing!" his tiny smile turned grudgingly into a grin as I threw myself at him and hugged him tightly.

He didn't look all that excited though, I noticed as I bounced back to my seat and gazed at his conflicted face. "What's up, why aren't you happy?" I demanded warily, watching him sigh and run his hands through his hair, a sure sign that all wasn't ideal in Blaine land. "This is about Kurt, isn't it?" I realized as he dropped his head in his hands.

"He just wants this so badly." he mumbled looking so completely dejected that my heart went out to him. You were not supposed to be this depressed after a great audition.

"There is nothing you can do to affect how Kurt's audition went." I insisted, placing my arm on his shoulder as he continued to stare at the floor, his hands clasped behind his head. "You should not feel bad that your audition went well, you should be happy." Blaine lifted his head and looked at me, pursing his lips in worry. It made me feel awful that Blaine was feeling this bad and all I'd done was yell at him and force my own problems on him. "Look." I said as he turned towards me. "You and Kurt are both performers so you're inevitably going to be going up for the same roles. You can't limit yourself or you'll just end up resenting him." He sighed and gave me his Blaine conflict eyes which consisted of him looking both petulant and heart broken all at the same time. I gazed at him sympathetically as he stared back at me, willing me to come up with an answer for him. "As long as you both do your best, it's up to the casting directors." He bit his lip and dropped his head onto the back of the sofa. "seriously, B, Kurt will be fine." He nodded silently and picked his head up, reaching for the remote and clicking the tv back on. Will and Grace had finished, giving way for a nondescript reality show about some semi-famous family.

We both sat silently in front of the tv, neither of us paying much attention to the screeching people on the screen. It was nice to have something mindless to keep me from thinking too much. My phone buzzed as one of the teenage daughters loudly complained about her mother's controlling nature. I picked my phone up from where I had dropped it on the table and slid it to unlock, smiling briefly at the old picture of Blaine and I as toothy seven year-olds that was my lock screen.

'Got home ok. Sorry was a total jerk. - Sam'

I gazed at the text for a moment feeling both relieved and conflicted. I was glad that he had made the first move but at the same time, I wasn't at all sure what I wanted to say to him. The angry remarks were still fresh in my mind.

'I'm glad you got home ok.' I typed out slowly, weighing my words carefully. 'I'm sorry too. Just so you know, I really like hanging out with you. - Sage'

I hit the send button, the grey bubble outlining my text as I bit my lip, walking the edge of telling him how I felt. It wouldn't really be cool to say it in a text message or at least that's what I told myself so that I didn't feel like quite as much of a coward. I gazed down at my phone as it buzzed again.

':) I'm relly glad to hear that. I like hanging out with you to. - Sam'

I couldn't even bring myself to pick apart his grammar or typos like I normally would.

'I g2g dinner. Drive tomorrow?'

I grinned and tucked my hair behind my ear.

'Of course :).' I typed out before locking the screen again and placing it on the table. Blaine sent me a small smile as I grinned to myself, feeling decidedly relieved that at least one thing had worked itself out. Only tomorrow morning would tell whether we had actually resolved anything but I supposed I would find out then.


End file.
